The Leaf's Mistake
by DarkIsRising
Summary: Naruto gets banished after bringing Sasuke back in critical condition and heads torwards Suna on Kyubi's advice, meeting someone unexpected on the way there. On haitus.
1. Chapter 1

An: Hello everyone, Sui here. Just a few things to say before the story starts. First about reviews. For the subject of good reviews suggestions and constructive criticism. I only say thanks for your input is valued and will help with the story. As for flames, they will be used to cook a three course meal for good reviewers.

Arashi here, tell us the truth. You can give us all the flames you want. We want them to cook our beloved 16 oz. steaks, so go right ahead help us out. As for the good reviews, we thank you. Please give us reviews. Good or bad it makes no difference.

Disclamer: We do not own any Naruto characters. However we do own any ocs. So ask if you want to use them.

Prologue

7:30 A.M. out side Konoha gates.

Naruto limped towards the villiage gates, carrying an unconcious Sasuke on his back.

Naruto's vision began to blur as he reached the gates, and he swayed back and forth as blood flowed down hi s chest and right arm from the gaping hole through his torso.

Sasuke slipped from his back as the medic-nins rushed forward to tend to Sasuke's wounds. They quickly carried Sasuke torwards the hospital, using healing jutsu to close his lesser wounds.

Naruto staggered in the direction of his apartment, light headed from blood loss.

'_They just forgot me. Sasuke is more important.' _ Naruto thought to himself, attempting to be optimistic ,as he neared the apartment .

Naruto twisted the handle of his door, not noticing that it was unlocked, and shuffled forward as he closed the door behind himself. As soon as the door was shut Naruto collapsed in a heap on his floor, unconcious.

_Konoha gate, before Naruto's return._

' _He's not here yet' _ Hinata thought to herself when she arrived at the gate.

'_Maybe he's at home' _ she thought, running off.

After she arived , Hinata used her byakugan to look in Naruto's apartment. Not finding Naruto there either, Hinata decided to continue looking. As she was about to leave, Hinata saw medic-nins running by with Sasuke.

'_They're back. He's got to be in the hospital then'_

" Excuse m-me m-m-miss is U-uzumaki N-naruto in the hospital?" Hinata aked the recptionist at the desk.

"No." the recptionist replied without even looking up.

'_Ichariku's then.'_

"Excuse m-me,Te-e-euchi-san, ha-ave you se-e-en N-naruto-kun, today?" asked the stuttering ninja.

"No, I haven't today. Why? Is he back? " Teuchi asked, in response to Hinata."I don't but I sa-aw me-e—d-ic-nins car-r-ry-in-g Sasuke to t-he ho-spi-tal."

"Oh, I guess that means he's if you see him let him know that the first bowl of ramen is on the tell him that we have a new flavor, cheese curry flavor." Teuchi told Hinata.

Hinata was frantic now. She had checked the gates, the hospital, and Ichariku and still no sign of him. She was now running to the acamadey to ask if Iruka has seen Naruto. When, she arrived, it was lunch time so Iruka wasn't teaching at the moment, however he was grading papers. "I-iruka-sensei have y-ou se-een N-ar-uto-kun today? "

"Hm, no I haven't. Have you checked Ichariku?"

"I've che-cke-d eve-rywhere, ev-en the ga-tes."

"I'm sure he's fine, wherever he is. Why do you wish to find him?"

"Re-ce-ntly he we-nt on a m-iss-ion and ev-ery-o-ne th-at we-nt wi-th him has r-etu-rn-ed, ev-en Sasuke who h-e w-en-t to he re-trie-ve . "

"Ah. I see. Don't worry, he'll show up soon. If I do see him though, I'll let you know. Alright?"

"Uhhh. Thanks, I guess." Hinata said trying go hide her emotions for Naruto. Iruka said nothing more and continued to grading his papers in silence. Hinata thanked Iruka one more time before leaving the acamady

Hinata searched throughout Konoha trying to see if she could find Naruto. The setting sun didn't even make her realize that a lot of time had passed by. A Hyuga branch member walked toward her; Hinata not even acknowledging the branch member, kept walking searching for Naruto. '_Naruto, where are you? Please show up soon.'_

"Hinata-sama? Hinata-sama? Hinata-sama!? " yelled the branch member, finally getting Hinata's attention.

"Oh, huh?"

"Are you alright, Hinata-sama?"

"Oh, y-es. I was ju-st , uh, d-ee-p in tho-ught."

"Well, if you're alright then, it's time to come home, now. Dinner is ready and if Hiashi-sama doesn't see you there when he starts to dine, we'll both be in hot water. So, with you're leave, we'll get going, however I do suggest we hurry up."

"-t's g-e-t go-in-g ." said Hinata.

"Ugh,"Naruto groaned as he realized where he was. _'Hm.I'll get dressed and go to Ichariku, go see the others , then see baa-chan.'_

"_Uzumaki, Naruto, you're presence is demanded by the council, immediately. "an ANBU wearing a bird mask. _

_Sigh,_"Fine I'm coming." The ANBU waited as Naruto finished getting dressed. Naruto, then , walked to the council chambers, while being escorted by the ANBU.

His dread began to grow as Naruto stood before the council, Tsunade conspicuously missing.

"Uzumaki, Naruto. For the attempt of murdering a Konoha shinobi, and the threat of realsing the Kyubi, you are hearby stripped from you're rank and banished from Konoha. You have exactly one hour to get your stuff and leave. If you are seen here after the hour is up, you will be killed on sight."

"You can't do this! Tsunade isn't here to approve!"

"She doesn't have to be. I already have the papers with her signature and seal for your banishment." said Koharu as he showed Naruto the papers. Naruto collapsed in on himself. Koharu laughed.

"You didn't expect that, did you boy? You have one hour to leave. Council dismissed"

'_Where am I going to go?'_ was Naruto first thoughts as he walked toward his apartment .

'**Kit, when you leave head toward Suna, but don't be seen**_.'_ Kyubi answered his containers thoughts.

'_Kyu? I thought you were asleep.' _

' _**I woke up as the council banished you**__. '_

'_Why should I go to Suna?'_

'_**There is something there I want you to get**__.'_

'_For example?'_

'_**I'm going to teach you ,kit, but before the I'm going to led you to the eight other kitsune sennin, and have them teach you as well. This was in a small part, I guess, my fault, so I'm going to make up for it**__.'_

'_Why couldn't you teach me this stuff earlier? Why didn't you help me when I needed it?'_

'_**Enough! I have helped you plenty of times! When that Haku kid was going to kill you, who stepped in and saved your life? Or against that Hyuga Neji to help you win the chunin match? Against the incomplete Shukaku? Or did you already forget the battle against the Uchiha? Don't tell me that I don't help you**__!'_

'_Sorry.'_

'_**Don't worry about the other reason is that you are similar to a kitsune, which in that case you need to be trained. Every kitsune gets trained by the senin**__.'_Kyubi's voice softened a little near the end.

Naruto reached the gates with his meager belongings, not even noticing the evil glares that the guards were giving him.

'_Alright, then. Why do we have to proceed undetected, though?'_

'_**If you're discovered by that friend of yours, Garaa I believe his name is, he might broadcast your location and the sennin there likes to live in a seclusive area**__.'_

'_That would make sense. Having a bunch of random people at the entrance of the senin's home would be a bad thing.'_

'_**Yes**__.'_

'_Yes._ Yes_, it would.'_

_At Akatsuki headquarters(somewhere in wind country)_

"_Pein, now is the time to get the Kyubi. His container has been banished from Konoha, which leaves for him to be open to attack. We must act quickly before the stupid village recognizes their mistake. Find him ,Pein,bringf him back, while he's vulnerable."_

"_Yes, I agree." Pein answered Madara._

'_I have to go, now before they catch Naruto.'_ Itaichi thought to himself._ 'I can't let Madara or Pein get Naruto. I must try and hide him.' _ Itaichi dashed quietly out of the hideout.

"Zetsu! Come here! No better yet to not waste any time, there is the nine tailed container that has been banished, you know what to do." Pein yelled. By this time however, Itaichi was already on his way toward the Leaf.

Somewhere between Suna and the Akatsuki hideout

The hideout was nothing more than a dot, when Zetsu's voice come from the ground.

"**Where are you going, Itaichi?"**

"_Yes, where? Pein hasn't sent you on a mission, so where do you think you're going?"_

"You're right. He hasn't. I'm leaving the Akatsuki." Itaichi replied, tossing his ring to Zetsu.

"**You know the penalty for treason.I can't let you go alive, if Pein found out he'd kill me too. I guess that just leaves you, traitor." **Zetsu lunged toward Itaichi, kunai in hand. Itaichi dodged to the left, tripping the six foot plant guy to the ground.

"You were always the weakest; no combat capabitilities what so ever." Itaichi closed his eyes, then opened them slowly revealing his mangkyou sharingan. "It's time for your death, amaterasu." Jet black flames quickly enveloped Zetsu's grass like body, burning him to a crisp in a few seconds. '_Now, time for me to catch Naruto, before either Pein or Madara find out what I've done.'_

_Well, that's the prologue, tell us how you think it was. We should update every so month or so, but don't hold that to us, we will work it around our schedules at the fastest pace for us possible._ Hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Chapter 2: The Ecounter

An: Arashi here, sorry for the wait, but issues happened and we have been busy. Yeah, I know excuses, excuses. Well, hope you like it, or not I don't care.

Sui's part……

Ch2

_Why do they favor Sasuke so much? _Naruto thought as his anger rose from the banishment.

**Cause, kit, they are ignorant. If the stupid village wants to banish their greatest asset, let them. Now, continue on your journey, but be wary. I sense, some chakra that is following us. I can't tell exactly what it is, but be on your guard.**

Naruto agreed with the Kyubi and continued on his way toward Suna.

Itaichi shushined toward the Leaf in hopes of catching Naruto. Hidan,and Kakazu were following him, since Zetsu burning had let out a foul smell. "Damn it, they are catching up." _Hidan would be the main problem, since the damn guy is immortal. But Kakazu has five hearts; damn I can't fight them both. One of them would be annoying enough for me to waste chakra needed to catch Naruto. I promised the third, that I wouldn't let them capturing him, then again he and I didn't expect the village to banish him. _ Itaichi thought as he tried to out run the two following members. He threw some kunai at Kakakzu hoping it would be enough to distract him, nope wrong. Itaichi stopped and turned around, preparing to face off with the duo. "Are you ready to be killed and sacrificed for my kami?" Hidan said while pulling out his scythe

"Captain, the demon brat has stop he may be exhausted and has stopped to rest. Now is the time to kill him." Said the root ANBU.

"Surround him" Said the Captain.

_At Naruto's position_

Naruto slowed to a stop and turned to face the ANBU as he created three kage bushin.

'**Be careful kit, these are four of that Danzo's root ANBU.'**

'I know Kyubi'__

"It's over brat" said one of the ANBU as they arrived in the clearing.

The two ANBU on each end of the line drew their katanas as the two in the middle started a jutsu, one doing a fire jutsu and the other a wind justu to amplify the fire jutsu.

The Narutos scattered as the combination fire/ wind jutsu. Two of the Narutos block the katana strikes with a kunai and two more jump out of the ground and impale themselves on the katanas and two kyubified clones appear on each side of the katana wielding ANBU and one behind them holding out a hand as though preparing a barrier jutsu as the real Naruto charges forward as the two clones on the katanas explode dispersing their chakra into the air. As the chakra dispersed into the air the kyubified clones began spinning the chakra in the air beginning to create a large rasengan in the air and Naruto continued charging forward with a small rasengan in hand and as it hits the chakra in the air it absorbs the dispersed chakra amplifying the rasengan in hand causing it to expand and catching the ANBU in it as it grew ripping them apart sending pieces of their bodies flying around the clearing.

"**Hmph, pathetic ANBU underestimating me. They should know that deception is a ninja's greatest asset and** that** I wo**uld**n't **b**e t**hateasy to kill." Said Naruto as the kyubi's chakra began to recede and he turned to begin towards Suna again.

Kakuzu removes his shirt as the masks on his back begin to move of their own volition and start to attack Itachi as Hidan prepares his ritual.

Itachi blurred as he shushins to the side dodging the attacks of Kakuzu's masks and sending a goukakyu at Kakuzu who has his fire element mask absorb the attack and sends it back and combines it with a wind jutsu and Itachi substitutes himself with a nearby log.

Hidan having completed his ritual dashes towards Itachi slashing downward with his scythe. Itachi blocks with a kunai and jumps backward and fires another goukakyu at Hidan who runs through it and quickly heals and continues to slash repeatedly at Itachi.

"Hehe, you can't weasel your way out of this one, can you Itachi?" Hidan says as he laughs at his pun.

As Itachi continues to jump backward away from Hidan's relentless attacks Kakuzu unleashes a lightning jutsu at Itachi who, caught unawares, jumped into it. As the jutsu hits Itachi it goes through him and pierces through Hidan.

"Damn it Kakuzu what the fuck was that for?!"

"It appears that Itachi fooled us with a genjutsu as he escaped." Kakuzu said to the seething Hidan.

"Damn, Pein's gonna' be pissed!"

_Konoha council room_

"You did WHAT?!" Tsunade yelled at the members of the council

"We removed a major threat to the village Tsunade. Now calm down, it should have been done years ago, but the third was too enraptured by that demons wile." Said Komura.

"You used the Hokage's personal seal without my permission and banished one of MY ninja. You have control over domestic matters, but the shinobi are mine. This is treason against Hi no Kuni, the penalty for which is death." Said Tsunade.

"I agree completely Hokage-sama. If I had known of this treason I would have stopped it myself." Said Danzo.

"This is an outrage!" Hiashi cried.

"How could you do this to that poor boy?!" Said Tsume.

"How could you banish him. He may not have been a model shinobi, but he was always very trustworthy." Said Shikaku, speaking for the Ino-Shika-Chou trio.

"Your logic, despite having a strong base, is not strong enough to have the boy banished. He has never shown any violent tendencies towards the villagers or shinobi despite the way he has been treated and therefore he was not a threat to the village, though your actions may incite him to hate Konoha." Shibi said in his usual emotionless voice.

Tsunade looks around the council.

"All in favor of executing the members of council responsible for the treasonous acts of using the Hokage's personal seal and forging the Hokage's signature say aye." Tsunade said.

There was a chorus of ayes from the remaining council members.

"ANBU, take the traitors to the cells of the interrogation and torture squad, and be sure to tell Ibiki that he has some new subjects." Tsunade ordered as several ANBU appear at her call.

Tsunade sits down at her desk reaching for one of her hidden bottles of sake when the rookie nine and team Guy, minus Sasuke and Sakura, bust through her doors yelling in a cacophony of shouts and screams.

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade yelled above the shouts, causing everyone to instantly fall silent.

"Now, what is it you need?" Tsunade asked at a more normal tone.

"Is it true that Uzumaki-san has been banished?" Shino asked calm and emotionless as ever, speaking for the entire rookie nine and team Guy as his voice rang through the silent room.

Tsunade's expression changed to a sorrowful look.

"Unfortunately, yes he has been banished."

'**Kit a powerful, for a human, chakra signature is approaching quickly. It may be an enemy.'**

Naruto quickly created nine kage bushin and had them all hide in the surrounding foliage.

'_Just a little further, I can sense Naruto's chakra signature up ahead.'_ Itachi thought as he jumped from tree to tree. Itachi landed in a clearing quickly seeing Naruto standing in the center of the clearing.

Naruto had his clones jump from their hiding places and throw 8 shurikan each and the clones quickly run through the seals for the shadow shurikan jutsu as Naruto did the same.

"Shadow Shurikan no jutsu." 10 voices call out in unison. The shurikan quickly multiplied by 10 rapidly becoming 800 shurikan flying from all sides towards Itachi.

"Earth shield no jutsu." Itachi called out creating a sphere of earth to block the shurikan. The shield crumbled and Itachi shushined in front on Naruto and elbowed him into a tree and rushes forward and holds a kunai to his neck.

Sui: …. Hello, sorry for the wait but at least we got a new chapter up… the little button at the bottom of the screen wants you to click it.

Arashi: Here's the reason why it took so long: My father lost his job and I had to move, and well I moved sort of far away to be coming over to Sui's house every day, so this was the first I was able to get my ass over there, and finish this chapter. My car shall be fixed soon, and the chapters will be coming at a faster rate, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3: Of Reactions and Meetings

**Author's notes: ** Arashi: Sorry for the long wait ya'll, but this is the first I have been able to come over here, so yea, I know excuses but it's the truth.

Sui's part: Well, long time no uh… well it's not really seeing, but anyway… yeah time for the story I guess.

"Finally come to collect me Itachi?" Naruto asked with a bitter venomous tone. His eyes would flicker between his normal blue, and a crimson red, as Kyuubi realized some chakra into his container. He felt the Kunai pressed against his throat as Itachi just stared, keeping the emotionless gaze upon the young ninja.

"Collect you for the Akatsuki? Oh no, but I'm here to help you." His voice sounded tired as if sleep had eluded him. His eyes streaked blood down his cheek as he deactivated his Mangekyou Sharingan into his normal eyes, even deactivated his normal Sharingan.

"Help me, what a laugh…Now what's the real reason, Uchiha Scum?"

"The Sandaime sent me to help you."

"The Sandaime is dead, has been for months."

"I will tell you a secret only three people, including myself know. The night of the Uchiha massacre I did not kill them_ just_ to test myself, I was ordered by the Sandaime to kill all involved in the plot to overthrow him and replace him with my father as dictator."

"Why should I believe you? You killed your whole clan in one night. Not to mention you BETRAYED the village, and joined the most dangerous criminal organization…Just because you say the Sandaime asked to do something still has its flaws in your petty excuse to capture me, the least you could do is just say you are here to do so, and get on with it."

" I suppose, perhaps you are of age..Hopefully he told you…."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Did the Sandaime tell you of all the blackmail porn that he had on all of the Jonin and the other previous Hokages?"

Naruto widen his eyes in not just shock but amusement. That was the biggest secret only shared between him and the Third. For Itachi to know, the Third would have to trust him, just so that fact alone would make Naruto less weary of him.

"..Yes he did….that…was just our secret..No one else knew…." Naruto said, still in slight shock.

"He told me, so in case you questioned my motives. I am telling you Naruto look into my eyes, my regular eyes, and see that I'm not lying." Itachi said calmly, releasing the kunai from Naruto's throat.

"What is going on then?"

"After I killed the Uchiha clan, I was sent to infiltrate the Akatsuki to act as a spy for the Sandaime. Jiraiya only knows that I can be trusted, not what I'm doing or what my mission is."

"And what is your mission?" Naruto questioned."

"I had three missions. The first was to eliminate anyone involved in the coup the Uchiha were planning. The second was to infiltrate to Akatsuki and relay information on their plan to the Sandaime. The third was, in case you were ever endangered or banished, I was to abandon the Akatsuki and immediately get to you as quickly as possible and protect you."

"Hm…" _Well Kyuubi, what do you think I should do? He could be a great asset for helping me, but he can also be a great enemy…what are your thoughts about this? _

_**Take his help for now kit, but be wary of him and be prepared should he betray us.**_

"I will trust you for now, but if I even think you are going to betray me I will escape before you can even blink."

"I find it amusing that you think you could escape if I were to turn on you, but like I said I am here to protect you and will not betray you."

"If you wish to come along you may, but don't get in my way. I will be going my way, not yours. I do not care if you have some weird ass fan girl that is willing to get you and myself laid, in some far away village, if it's not on my agenda I'm not going. Capiche?"

Letting out some laughter, which would be the first in years, Itachi scared Naruto. The usual bad ass no emotion guy was gone and now some lunatic with a laughing problem was in his pace, or this was in Naruto's eyes. "Yes of course, Naruto-san. Be that as I may have fan girls, never….ever...would I try to acquire one to get laid. And being under the Sandaime orders' still as I did promise, I will be going wherever you are heading toward. "

_Should he know about the Sennin oh mighty super fluff? _

_**Should you ever call me as such again brat, ill will castrate what little thing you have that makes you a man, then heal you, and do it again, following the same format….and to answer your question, since he is accompanying us, I suppose so…but only tell him the most important and on a need to know basis.**_

"Then we head to Suna…" Naruto said, not giving any more information at the moment. With a quick nod of his head, Itachi agreed.

~scene change~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hinata sat in her room. It had been four days since officially learning of Naruto's banishment. Hiashi wondered what had his daughter so down. He had seen her bawling her eyes out, running straight into her room and locking the door. He vowed to make whoever this to his daughter suffered so badly that in fact Kyuubi itself would be proud of the pain he would inflict on said person. Knocking on Hinata's door, he asked in a quiet voice, "Hinata…what's wrong?" He had been nice to her ever since the Chunin exams, after the brutal beating his nephew Neji had placed upon her.

"Otou-sama, they banished Naruto-san." Hinata cried.

"I know, I tried to prevent it from happening, but too many of the council members wanted it and somehow acquired Tsunade's seal when she was on official business outside of the village."

He could hear Hinata sobbing harder now, something that greatly pissed him off. He vowed secretly to punish the council members that have caused his precious daughter this type of grief.

~scene change~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shikamaru sighed. Not like he greatly appreciated Naruto, but he did enjoy the humor that the kid brought. Now as since Naruto was gone, the entire rookie 9, save for the bitch, and the emo brat , were in depression. Neji had been complaining that TenTen couldn't shut up that Naruto had been banished. Which in Shikamaru's mind had came to the conclusion that the two were secretly dating, not like he cared. Choji had been training nonstop, instead of eating which was a shock even to the brilliant lazy mind. He figured that since Choji had a love for eating that it would have been the opposite for him, and to settle the depression training would be the best thing for him. Now Ino had became less of a bitch really, and was actually one of the more supporter of Choji training. Kiba, being pissed at the fact that he would never get his rematch from the Preliminaries, trained constantly in hopes of battling Neji, who had almost beaten Naruto. Shino went about life as if it was normal, not showing really any signs of depression, though it of in itself could be a sign of it. Lee was the one who tried cheering everyone up. "The flames of youth shall not be diminished due to this! In fact, we should greatly remember him by training to strive to be even stronger than we were before, in Naruto's memory!"

~_Scene change~-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Garra looked outside upon his balcony. "I see…" was his voice, learning of the news of Naruto's banishment. The sand ninja nodded, and backed away for fear of being crushed. Naruto was the one and only reason why Garra had been allies with the Leaf. With Naruto's banishment, taken the news like normal news, but all who knew anything about him, would know that such news could result if remaining to be in the Kazekage's presence could be..and most likely fatal. "You may go." Garra said. The sand ninja shushined out of the presence of his leader. Garra continued staring out off the balcony, "Temari…Head to the Leaf , and cancel all diplomatic agreements…Also tell them that no negotiations to reinitiate diplomatic agreements will be allowed. This also means..Temari that you must come directly back, and not spend any extra time there with your...'escort'. "

~Scene change~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a AMBU prison cell, awaited the council members that banished Naruto. Tsunade entered the cell with two AMBU to inform them of their fate.

"According to the laws of Konoha, you have committed treason, the punishment for which is death. You will now be executed, in accordance with the law." Tsunade said,

"You can't do this Tsunade!" Koharu protested.

"I'm the Hokage and Konoha is not a democracy. Unless the Daimyo interfere, I can do whatever I want." Tsunade smirked.

"Well, you certainly earned the title of HO-kage Tsunade." One daring council member said.

Tsunade's only reaction was a super-powered punch to his head that caused it to explode in a shower of blood, pulverized bone, and brain matter.

"Anyone else want to be a smart ass?" Tsunade questioned in a sickly sweet voice.

No one dared to say anything after Tsunade's show of anger.

"Very well then, AMBU, execute these traitors." Tsunade said.

With that the AMBU blurred as they moved far faster than the human eye could follow and decapitated the former council members.

~Scene change~---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kakuzu knelt down studying the ground. After a few moments, he got up and said in a quiet angered manner, " This way Hidan… Itachi went this way. And for a bonus so is the 9-tailed container."

"How do you know it's the 9 tails?" said the immortal man with the giant scythe.

"Well I was good at tracking from my time in the tracking co. of my original village and I can sense chakra even better from the chakra's I've absorbed along with the extra hearts. He is leaking a small amount of youkai that is distinctive to the Kyuubi." Kakuzu said, sounding annoyed at having to explain this to Hidan.

Drawing his scythe, Hindan grinned maliciously, "Let's go kill some people! Jashin demands sacrifices."

* * *

An: Sui: as usual, people who review will be rewarded, people who flame will have their flames used to keep me warm(we are having unusually cold weather). For the person who requested the head exploding punch, there you go, proof people who review get rewards… well that's all for me….

Arashi: Well….Saw the review for the head exploding punch and persuaded Sui here to get that in the story. Any ideas, plz say so in the review and we will decide if we want it in the story, and if we can work it in. Sorry for the long ass wait again, this was the first time I have been over. Yes we did write this in a day literally, but most of the ideas we have sahred via Email, but Sui's comp hhas been messing up so..No email talk. Um..guess al I got to say is read, and review please.


	4. Chapter 4: Of Fighting and Tracking

Author s notes:

Arashi here: We are working as fast as we can thanks.

Sui: Well, look it's another chapter

Scene change~~~~~

Naruto and Itachi were resting at the Tezuka Osen and Inn, having stopped to rest briefly before they got out of Hi no Kuni. They had gone largely unnoticed as Itachi had abandoned the bulky Akatsuki cloak for less noticeable civilian clothes as had Naruto. Itachi had made some Miso and Dango soup. Cooking over a fire that he made by using a Fire breath Jutsu, the soups had been nice and hot as they ate it.

"So Naruto-san, why are we heading toward Suna for?" Itachi asked, sipping his hot Miso and Dango soup.

"There is someone there I d like to meet in my travels, seeing as such I do not have any obligations to any one now." Naruto said, still slightly cautious of the nuke Nin.

He sipped the soup, slowly, knowing that back when he was in the Leaf, of how many tried to poison his ramen, that he was immune to most.

"Mind if I ask who that may be?" Itachi asked, setting his soup down, and picking up his small glass of tea. Naruto finished his bowl of soup, and picked up the tea that was made as well.

"No, I don t I don t know what its name is, all I know is that I have to find the fucker. Any more damn questions, Teme?" Naruto asked, slightly irritated at Itachi for asking, but not blaming him.

Itachi chuckled, not many were so bold to call him names, least alone, with an attitude.

"That s fine, as long as we find them then." Itachi said, still having a nice laugh about it.

~Scene change~~~~~~~

Hinata waited for her team, as they were supposed to meet in Training Ground 12. She leaned against the training post that was there. She let out a sigh, wishing they would get there already Ever since she got over crying because of Naruto s banishment, she had become more determined to become stronger in Naruto s memory. As Kiba, Shino, and Kurenai appeared into the Training Ground, Hinata let out a sigh.

"Hurry up slow pokes .I got training to complete."

Her expression was bored, and just slightly still depressed.

"Wow Hinata-Chan, you re here early!" Kiba said, with a happy bark from Akamaru.

Shino looked at her and nodded silently as if starting to analyze her.

"Nice to see your so enthusiastic Hinata. Today, we are sparring and helping each other in their weaknesses. Now Hinata, you re up first against Kiba." Kurenai said.

Kiba looked at Hinata and let out a friendly howl.

"You ready Hinata?" Kiba said, enthusiastically. Hinata nodded and took a Jyuken stance.

"Bring it on, Kiba-kun." She said with a smirk.

Kiba lunged forward, attempting to punch her in her gut. Hinata batted his hand lightly aside, and taped his shoulder. The tap shut down his critical point in that arm, rendering it useless for Kiba. Kiba jumped back, his arm hanging limply at his side.

"Not bad Hinata." He said smiling, this might be more of a challenge then he thought.

"Thank you Kiba-kun." Hinata said before charging him.

Kiba tried to doge to the side, but she pressed the followed him, staying close and landed a hit on his right side, numbing his right leg, slowing him down. Kiba retaliated with a punch, but Hinata dodged to the side and hit this shoulder with another crippling Jyuken strike, not quite disabling the arm, but still slowing it down. Kiba jumped back and threw several kunai, and Hinata caught the first kunai and caught the second one with the ring of the first one, finally batting away the third kunai with a Jyuken strike. She threw the second kunai back at Kiba, before charging toward Kiba with the first Kunai. Kiba pulls a kunai out with his partially disabled arm, and tries to block, but as fate would have it, it buckled underneath the stress of Hinata s blow. It was weak due to the Jyuken strike earlier. Hinata quickly hit Kiba with a few more Jyuken strikes, bringing Kiba to the ground.

"This battle is over thank you Kiba-kun for being such a great sparring partner." Hinata said, extending a hand for Kiba to grab so she could pull him back up. Kiba grabbed her hand, and got back to his feet, limping still from the blows.

"Good job Hinata..." he said shocked at the fact she basically pummeled his ass.

"Great spar you two, now if you re up for another one Hinata, Shino is next" Kurenai said, smiling at the fact that her worst fighting student beat one of the others.

_'Such improvement from her, it s amazing.'_ She thought to herself as she watched Hinata nod, getting ready for yet another spar.

~Scene change~

Garra walked into his meeting room. Already awaiting him there was Temari, who had just returned from the Leaf just a half hour ago.

"What was their reaction, Temari?" Garra asked with his usual voice.

"Tsunade didn t really banish Naruto, brother. The civilian members of the council forged banishment for Naruto, and with Tsunade being gone at the time, there was none who could stop it. In fact many of the council members that were part of a Ninja clan weren t even there. Lady Hokage had the council members who did such, exciuted for treason. She plans on getting a team together post haste to find and bring back Naruto to the Leaf. She did ask for you to reconsider our decision to cancel diplomatic relations." Temari said as for her report.

"I want you to head back toward the Leaf tomorrow, Temari. Tel the Hokage that for now we will drop the decision to cancel diplomatic relations for the time being. Also tell her, we will keep an eye out for Naruto, and inform her as quickly as possible and proceed to detain him should he be found."

With that Garra head back to his Kaze Kage room, sat behind his desk, and started once more on the mountain of paperwork that laid there.

~Scene change~~~~

Tsunade looked at the time.

_'Quarter till 12...'_ She thought before calling in Shizune.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" she asked.

"Call in Team 8, now." She demanded to her subordinate.

"Yes ma am." Shizune said and shushined out of the room toward the training grounds where Kurenai said they would be for the day.

~Time Skip, 15 minutes later. ~~

"Here they are Lady Tsunade" Shizune said to the Hokage.

"You are here to retrieve Naruto, Team 8. You are to avoid using force, but if the matter requires it, then do so, just get him back here." She said quickly. Tsunade couldn t afford to lose any more time not finding Naruto, as by now, he could have easily been captured by one of their enemies, or killed.

"Yes ma am, right away." Kurenai said, as her and her team shushined out of the room, and toward their respectable houses to gain supplies before heading out.

~~~Scene change~~~~

Kakashi stood at the memorial stone.

'I am sorry, Sensei, and Obito. I don t know where I have gone wrong with Sasuke. Had I been a better teacher, Naruto wouldn t had been banished, and wouldn t been in such a bad condition." Kakashi said.

"Stop beating yourself up, you one eye fuck. It ain t your fault that the Emo brat tried to be gay with Orochimaru, and attempt to run away." Anko slurred out, just barely as if she had a bottle of Saki. Kakashi sighed.

"Don t try to convince me it wasn t my fault. I could have been a much better sensei. My sensei taught me the importance of equal training but I focused on Sasuke more than the rest," He groaned.

"Listen here Hatake Kakashi Either you re going to snap out of it or I'll place things in certain holes of your body that were never meant to go there." She said, in a threateninf tone. Kakashi knew it was best to leave that subject where it was.

"Come one Kakashi, let s go get a drink!!!" Refusing to take no for an answer, Anko grabbed Kakashi s arm, dragging him unwillingly toward a bar.

"Anko, I don t want-" he started but as she dragged him, he realized it would be of no use, and quickly shut up.

"Good thing you shut the fuck up, Hatake. Because no matter how much griping and moaning you do, your still coming along. By the way...if you continue to moan, I might just make you do so in front of everyone else...wouldn t that be embarrassing?!" She said excitedly as if she wanted to do that to the poor Jonin she dragged along.

~~~Scene change~~

With Kakuzu and Hidan

"We are close now, the tracks are getting fresher." Kakuzu said as he approaches Hidan after scouting ahead a bit.

"He, finally, I need to make a sacrifice to Jashin soon." Hindan said maliciously while drawing his scythe.

"Don't go overboard Hidan, we need the Kyuubi jinchuriki alive to extract his biju and Pein will destroy us if we kill him." Kakuzu warned his blood thirsty partner.

"I know. I won't kill him, but Itachi has no such use to keep him alive for." Hidan said.

"Let's get moving, they are at an almost empty onsen up ahead, we should draw them out to prevent news of this from spreading too quickly. If anyone finds out we have the Kyuubi jinchuriki, they may try to interfere and we need more than the usual three days to extract the Kyuubi due to its monstrous chakra levels." Kakuzu said.

With that the Akatsuki's immortal partners leaped out of the clearing, leaving no trace that they had ever been there.

~~~scene change~~~~~

"He went this way." Kiba said with a little hesitation, "but I can't be sure, the trail is faint."

"Let's go team." Kurenai said. With that, team 8 leaped from the clearing, leaving little trace of their passing.

_'I hope we can get Naruto back, if for no other reason than Hinata's sake. She has become stronger faster than ever before, but this can't be good for her'_ Kurenai thought.

~scene change~ Scene change~~~

Itachi sipped a bit more on his soup, when feeling the all too familiar chakra signatures.

"Naruto, we leave now." His voice was demanding and forceful as he grabbed Naruto's arm, jerking him up.

"Dude what the hell is your problem?" Naruto asked, jerking his arm back. Itachi glared at him for a second, before quickly relaying the story of what went on before he met up with the child.

"Now, I can feel their chakra here, we mustn't dawdle. I d rather not fight them, let alone in a populated area." Itachi said, heading for the exit out of the outpost from which they were at. Naruto realized the seriousness in the ex-AMBU's face, and decided to take his word for it.

_'Kyuubi, what do you feel?'_

_'Kit, I feel what the Uchiha is as well.'_

As they shushined away toward an empty clearing, a guy in a big black cloak, with red clouds on it, yelled out, "There you are Itachi! Jashin Demands your sacrifice!"

With that he and another one in the same cloak, shushined towards them, Itachi turned around, shushining backwards, "Kage bushin no Jutsu!"

Two more Itachi's appeared, one with a kunai in his hand, rushing toward Hidan, while the other did some hand seals rushing forward, with a small weak chidori in his palm toward Kakuzu. Hidan slashed forward his scythe killing the shadow clone before it could even reach him, but it did slow down Hidan for a moment. Kakuzu, smiled, and dodged the attack altogether, as the chakra from the chidori drained the shadow clone, which turned to smoke as, the Kakuzu dodged it. Itachi and Naruto were now out of sight within this small 2 second battle, as the two Akatsuki members stopped for a moment.

"They are becoming annoying...." Hidan said, with slight irritation.

Kakuzu looked about, and said in a calm voice, "They are right around in that clearing...and they have stopped...let's get this over with shall we?" He asked his partner. With a nod, the two walked towards the two Shinobi, with their weapons drawn.

Scene change~~~~~~

Itachi and Naruto awaited in a clearing, with the grass to be short and plush green. Their eyes however weren't upon the luxuries of this lovely field. They were upon the entrance however, as two more Shinobi appeared. Kakuzu and Hidan to be exact...

"Finally going to let us kill you, eh Itachi? And look, the Biju for the nine tails as well...we should congratluate you for giving him to us." Hidan said smiling, readying his scythe. Naruto smiled, as four of his shadows clone surrounded Hidan, rushing the Immortal Akatsuki Member. With a simple swipe of his scythe, Hidan took out three of the four, but these didn t just poof away in smoke like regular ones. As soon as Hidan's scythe swept into them, they exploded, resulting in Hidan being knocked back from the force of it. Straight into the fourth one who came up behind him, who latched himself around Hidan, with both arms and legs, before exploding immidatly himself. This knocked Hidan into the air.

Meanwhile, Kakuzu had his eye upon Itachi. Itachi didn't wait for his ex comrade to speak, instead, rushing forward, his Sharingan activated. Now Kakuzu saw this, jumping back, doing the hand seals for Water Style, Water Dragon Jutsu. As this Dragon shot forward, which Itachi saw coming he awaited, and used the same Jutsu to get counter of kakazu's.

Then, Itachi jumped in the air, "Fire Style, Giant Fire Ball Jutsu." He said calmly, shooting out a giant flame toward Kakuzu.

The Akatsuki member used a water vortex Jutsu, to counter and try to hit Itachi. However Itachi wasn t there after the Jutsu.

_'Where is that damn Uchiha...?'_ Kakuzu thought.

"Rikari..." was the response as if Itachi heard the man's thought. Kakuzu turned around quickly, and saw in a flash, Itachi, with what looked like lightning in the palm of his hand. Kakuzu jumped back just as Itachi rushed forward.

Doing some quick hand seals, Kakuzu yelled, "Earth Style, Great Barrier Wall!" An earth wall jolted out of the ground right in front of Itachi, who jumped on top of it, before lunging toward Kakuzu.

Naruto smiled as he saw Hidan fly in the air, and landed with a thud back on the ground. Not wasting any time however, he had a rasengan forming in the palm of his hand, with the help of a clone of course. He rushed toward Hidan, who was now on his feet, rushing toward Naruto.

"You can t kill me boy!" He yelled, laughing sadistically. As Naruto just about reached him, Hidan slashed his scythe forward, in an attempt to cut the Biju, not fatally of course. Naruto lunged forward, blocking the scythe with his free hand, and shoving the rasengan forward with the other. Hidan let go of his scythe, and dashed backwards.

"Humph, your strong boy, but nothing you do can save yourself from me."

Hidan smiled, before throwing a kunai, several actaully, at Naruto, who spun the scythe to block them. Though this was just a diversion, as Hidan shushined. To where though was the thought of the Biju. In that second a devastating kick struck the unexpecting Naruto. Though Naruto shot a hand down sending him back to his feet, he still winced in pain slightly. The attack had hit him right in a nerve, pinching it, and it was painful enough to bring most Chunin's if not some Jonin's to their knees. Hidan rushed forward, not to attack Naruto but to pick up the Scythe the youth had dropped. With a swipe, Hidan attempted to hit Naruto, who jumped back.

_'How the hell am I going to kill this guy...?'_ Naruto thought as Hidan charged him.

Naruto smiled, this time, as he summoned five shadow clones, though only four were seen. Hidan slashed threw them like it was nothing but the fifth was the one that got him by surprise, exploding with blades of wind hitting Hidan square in the chest. Hidan fell to the ground and Naruto let out a sigh in relief, maybe these Akatsuki members aren't so tough after all...? Hidan got up, quickly, and sliced Naruto's arm, by just barely with his scythe, before jumping back a few feet.

"Now boy, you ve just made your biggest mistake."

Kakuzu leaped backwards, but was too slow and was impaled upon Itachi's Rikari. However Kakuzu pulled himself off Itachi's arm as several masks detached them from his back and floated about.

"Futon: Renkudan! Katon: Karyuendan!" Kakuzu called as one of the masks spit out the futon justsu and another spit out the katon Justus. The two Jutsu clashed midair and combined, forming a deadly wall of fire rushing towards Itachi.

_'I need to finish this quickly; Naruto isn't strong enough to take on Hidan alone yet!'_ Itachi thought.

With that Itachi quickly ran through his own seals. "Suiton:Hahonryuu! Futon: Renkudan!" Itachi called forming his own combination Jutsu. A spiraling mass of water rushed towards Kakuzu, canceling his Jutsu.

Itachi activated his Mangekyou Sharingan and unleashed the deadly Amaterasu at Kakuzu

_'What! How is he still alive?'_ Naruto thought as the bloodied Hidan got back up, revealing that Naruto had done more damage than he though and had disemboweled him and destroyed his ribs.

"He he. My god would never let me die, so long as I continue to give him sacrifices." Hidan said, despite the fact that he couldn't draw in a breath due to his lungs being mush.

_'Damn, how am I going to kill someone who can't die'_

~scene change~

Kakuzu leaped backwards, but not in time. The entire left side of his chest had been hit by the deadly eternal black flames, turning the flesh a sickly black color.  
Kakuzu eyed Itachi over the still burning flames, but made the mistake of looking into his eyes, trusting his near immortality to protect him from dying.

The last thing Kakuzu heard before blacking out was the word Tuskiyomi.

As Kakuzu collapsed from the mental damage done by Itachi's Justus, Itachi quickly took action and, on guard due to Kakuzu taking a chidori to the chest and surviving, incinerated his body with a goukakyu justsu.

_'Now to go help Naruto'_ Itachi though as he dashed off in the direction of Naruto's chakra signature.

* * *

Sui: You had best apreciate this chapter. I had to have Arashi cobble it together on his computer, as my computer died recently and the new one doesn't have word, then I had to put it into the system via note pad, then run through it fixing the multitude of errors created by puting it in word pad. Ok now that I've vented I feel much better.

Arashi: ...(Sui: he isn't here.)


	5. Chapter 5: Immortals end, leaf panic

Sui:Uh... sorry for the long wait...

Disclaimer: we still don't own Naruto. We plan to steal it though...

* * *

Hidan began to draw his ritual circle on the ground when he was interrupted by another set of Naruto clones and was forced to leap back. Hidan growled in annoyance before charging at the clones and slaughtering them before starting his drawing again.

Naruto sent several more clones at Hidan before beginning a Jutsu. Once again, Hidan destroyed the clones, but this gave Naruto time to finish his Jutsu.

"Fuuton: Juha: Reppushou!" Naruto called, forming a claw shaped blast of wind and sending it at Hidan.

Hidan dodged to the side, but the claw followed him at every turn. After a short while of dogging, the claw managed to get close to Hidan and exploded with massive concussive force, further damaging the already mutilated Hidan.

As Hidan got up, there was a burst of chakra as Itachi arrived via shushin and, taking only a split second to assess the situation, seemed to phase from existence before reappearing and slamming his fist into Hidan's face and unleashing a burst of Amaterasu flames after him.

Naruto froze for a second. No one could had survived all this, was this man truly immortal? He watched how Itachi slammed his fist down and ignited the man in black flames before calling out, "Itachi, come here, I think I have a plan!"

Itachi nodded shushining toward the Biju. "Speak quick, Naruto, he'll be here in a second." Itachi's Sharingan already on Hidan, as he sent two super clones of himself to occupy the immortal man.

Hidan got up, looking around trying to see through the black flames that engulfed him. He could barely see through the flames and saw Itachi running toward him, a kunai in one of his hands. "You really think you can defeat me Uchiha?" Hidan yelled, swinging his scythe. The Itachi clone jumped on top of the scythe before lunging toward Hidan's head, the kunai slashing the side of Hidan's head as the clone flew past. "Damn it, ITACHI!"

The second clone of the Uchiha stood still doing hand seals for the Earth Style, Mud Shackles around Hidan.

"Aright you got the plan Itachi?" Naruto asked his partner. Itachi nodded, creating three more super clones after Hidan, befor eloooking into Naruto's eyes.

"Tsyukomi..." his voice calm.

~scene change~~

Inside of Naruto's mind was less than what Itachi had imagined. He had thought it to be magnificent, full of wonder, and different regions, instead it was... empty. This was the first time his Tsyukomi had worked like this, and he wondered was it because he was entering the mind of Jinchurikki, or if it was something else he didn't know of. He saw the blonde hair kid, standing of what seemed to be a gate, or well Naruto seemed to be outside of. Itachi ran toward it, "Naruto, why did you want me in here?" he said, his voice echoing throughout the place. As soon as he finished his sentence, he felt it, the chakra so dense and powerful it caused Itachi drop to one knee.

"**Well, you made a bad move coming in here, Uchiha scum." **Kyuubi stood behind Itachi, one of his claws outstretched, preparing to strike him down.

"No... Fox stop. Don't hurt him." Naruto's voice was barely audible; however, it was just the fact that he spoke stopped Kyuubi, his claw slowly moving back to the ground, a growl coming from the Fox's mouth. Itachi looked at the fox stunned, still not sure why Naruto wanted him to come into such a god forsaken place.

"Why am I here, Naruto?"

"Because Itachi, you're going to relay everything you know about Hidan to Kyuubi, this way, Kyuubi can relaease powers to me, and help us rid of him."

**"Clever kit, by using Tsyukomi, each second seems like 72 hours, for 72 hours, in span of a second, in the real world, by using this from what I can tell... Explain away..."**

Itachi looked at the two, and smirked, Clearly Naruto was smarter then he looked, as Itachi began to explain everything he knew about Hidan, including his fighting style, and what he thought most about. _'This might work.'_ Itachi thought to himself.

~~scene change~~

Kurenai-sensei, I can hear a battle up ahead!" Kiba called as the team rushed through the branches, "I think Naruto may be part of it, as his scent gets stronger up ahead!"

"Alright team, time to complete our mission, formation Delta!" Kurenai called as her team settled into the well practiced formation.

_~Scene Change~_

Itachi smirked as he came back into reality from Tsyukomi. His gaze still on Hidan, who now had killed, or dispeled if you will, the five clone's total that went for him. Rushing forward, he made the chidori, perfectly. The Uchiha rammed it through Hidan's shoulder, but not jumping back once the attack was done.

"You made a mistake not getting away from me, Itachi. Now I won't let you have a second chance!" Hidan snarled, bring his scythe in to stab Itachi in the back. Itachi winced as the blade from the scythe went through his back, but he hoped Naruto would come with the rest of the plan.

Naruto would be on the ground, his eyes closed, having collapsed from Itachi using his Tsyukomi onto him. This was part of the plan however...

~~scene change~~

"Alright you stupid fox, you heard The Uchiha, we have to obliterate that guy. Hence why I'm going to let you have some control the moment I collapse. The Tsyukomi will knock me out, you will take control, not full control just some, and attack Hidan, you understand?"

**"Humph, you're getting some spunk in you Kit. I like it, though don't always think you be able to order me around..." **Kyuubi chuckled, and unleashed some as his power as he felt Naruto's body touch the ground. **"Let's have some fun..."**

Naruto's crumpled body began to rise as demonic chakra bubbled from his navel. The Kyuubi cloak formed first one tail, then two. As the second tail formed, Naruto's skin began to peal from his body as his eyes turned completely red. There was a small explosion of demonic chakra and when the dust cleared there was a humanoid creature in the center of the crater. It had a humans body, if somewhat more compact than normal, it's fingers were tipped with deadly looking black claws, it's face was black with white ovals for eyes and a jagged opening forming the mouth, it had two tails twisting and writhing behind it, and it's skin was a shifting mixture of black and red.

Itachi shushined away from Hidan as the creature blurred towards them. The creature slashed at Hidan, who attempted to block with his scythe, but the scythe broke where it was hit from the force of the blow, sending Hidan flying back. It shot towards Hidan again, extending it's arm to unimaginable lengths and grabing Hidan's arm and ripping him back towards it. As Hidan neared, his arm began to disintigrate and he cut it off in one swift motion to prevent whatever was affecting it from doing more damage. This time cost him dearly, however, as it gave the creature time to slam it's other fist into Hidans face, all but annialihating it, and sending him rocketing back once more.

The creature sat down on its rump, much like a cat or other such animal, and purpleish black and clear blue orbs gathered in front of its face and began to condense. At the same time, what remained of Hidan was stumbling out of the crater he had created on impact. The orbs finished condensing and the creature stuck it's head forward, it's jagged mouth opening even more, going so far as to crack parts of its face open, and consumed the ball. Immediately afterwards, it began to grow in size, becoming more rotund. Hidan managed to exit the crater just in time to see the creature open its mouth and suddenly release a massive blast that flickered in and out of sight. Not having time to react, Hidan raised the shattered remains of his scythe and let off one last prayer to Jashin.

As the blast hit Hidan, it wrapped around him and carved a trench that continued off into the distance, the end of which couldn't be seen.

The chakra surrounding Naruto's body quickly retreated back into the seal on his navel and hi collapsed into a heap, some of his skin still peeled away and severe chakra burns covering large portions of his body.

Itachi quickly picked Naruto, intending to take him to a secure place to hide until he could move and avoid attracting the attention of the locals who had to be coming to see what had caused the many explosions so near their homes. However, just as he was shushining away, he caught sight to a group of Konoha Nin land in the remains of the clearing and look at him before he disappeared from sight.

_~Scene Change_

"Kurenai-sensei is right Kiba, my Kikai sense that one of the chakra signatures is rather large and the other is giving them a sense of destruction and power." Shino supplied.

"We move in slow and sneak up on them. That way, if it is an enemy, we can avoid them." Kurenai instructed.

"Avoid them! Why not just kick their asses?" Kiba complained.

"Our mission is to retrieve Naruto, not fight random shinobi. We also can't be noticed as this is supposed to be kept quiet as long as possible. Now let's move team."

Team eight moved forward silently, Kiba still following the scent trail and Shino keeping his bugs on high alert. Hinata activated her Byakugan and immediately gasped in shock.

"Sensei, up ahead are Naruto-kun, unconscious, and a man with red eyes and tomoe circling the pupil walking towards him!" Hinata whispered fervently to Kurenai.

"Let's go team; we have to get Naruto before the man does. If we don't, Naruto is as good as dead." Kurenai said as her team propelled themselves forward.

Team eight leaped through the forest as quickly as they could; only going just slow enough to remain completely aware of their surroundings. They suddenly broke into the clearing just in time to see Itachi heft Naruto over his shoulder and shushin away.

"Damnit." Kiba howled.

Everyone else was silent as the enormity of their failure hit them.

_~Scene Change~_

Anko smiled as the now completely hammered Kakashi, who seemed to have passed out on the bar. With an evil smirk, she paid for both her and his drinks, before hefting him over her shoulder and carrried him out. Several seconds later, as she shushined to her own apartment, she threw Kakashi onto her bed. She smiled once more, this was after all somewhat of a dream come true, as she had had a crush on him for a while now...and now...he's all hers...with no restraints. She slammed her door shut, with a manical laughter being heard for rooms around, including the story below and above hers.

~~scene change~~

Itachi shushined a bit farther now, being well into Kaze no Kuni. He laid Naruto onto the ground, and let out a sigh, as sweat dripped from his forehead. He couldn't risk that Jonin he saw catching them, so he shushined at full speed, while carrying a pretty heavy boy.

"Naruto, you awake yet?" Itachi questioned in his almost unnaturally quiet voice. Seeing the boy move some, he smiled. he was glad to see that he was still ok, but he had to tell Naruto as soon as he awoke, that now, their travels have increased ever so much from that one team spotting them...and not killing them on the spot.

~scene change~~

"Garra-sama! The guards at the edge of the desert have just sent a message that they sensed a massive amount of chakra being expended and, upon investigation, found a large battlefield occupied by a Konoha team. They were sent to find and recover one Uzumaki Naruto and followed his trail to the battle field where they saw that Uchiha Itachi had recovered him and shushined away from them towards our village." An exhausted Chunin said in between gasps for breath.

"Very well, you are dismissed." Garra said.

As soon as the Chunin had left Garra called for his best tracking team and his best heavy combat team.

When the teams arrived, Garra began to debrief them.

"There has been a sighting of Uchiha Itachi leaving the scene of a battle field with the seemingly unconscious body of Uzumaki Naruto. You are to track down the Uchiha and recover Uzumaki. Be wary of the Uchiha, he is an S-rank nuke-nin of Konoha and a master of gen- and nin-Jutsu and does not slack in taijutsu. He also has a fully developed Sharingan and was once a Konoha ANBU captain." Garra stoically informed the teams, "Now get moving!"

"Hai!" the teams called out in unison before them all shushined away, leaving large amounts of sand in the office.

At this Garra just sighed and mixed his sand with the sand on the floor before calling it all back into his gourd.

"I have to forbid using the Suna shushin in my office. If I get anymore sand in my gourd I won't be able to walk with it on."

Scene change~~

YOU WHAT?" Tsunade yelled. Kurenai looked down, having told her team to stay in their barracks or the training ground till she summoned them. She decided to face the wrath of a Hokage alone.

"My lady Hokage... It wasn't like we wanted to let him... I don't think with a group of Genin could catch, let alone fight to recapture Naruto against an S-rank Nuke-Nin." Kurenai said softly. She was sure that the Hokage would understand, after all not many could do that of the Jonin level.

"Your right... Sorry for going off on you like that, but Naruto retreving is of the upmost importance." Tsunade sighed, before taking a bottle of Sake out, and swigging it. She let out several sighs, afterwards, and was glad Shizune wasn't in to stop nagging her about her addiction to the drink. "Go Get me Kakashi... I want him to deliver something to the Kaze Kage, as quickly as he can."

Kurnenai nodded, not questioning her surperiors orders, before shushunning out of the Hokage's office. Tsunade sighed once more, "That damn Akatsuki... we must get Naruto back!" She said slamming her hands onto the desk top, accidently breaking it. "Not again,"

~~scene change~~

Kakashi awoke in a strange place... he wasn't really sure where he was, but he sure did know that all that drinking at that bar, gave him one hell of a hangover. He sighed and rolled over; stretching his arm to grab whatever was left of the...wait...this was an arm... His eyes widened, did he go home with anyone? Using his hands to feel some more, he felt down a body, and down the persons ass. A slight giggle was heard.

"oh... Kakashi... wanting more are you?" the body said, somewhat quietly, with a hint of sultryness... Kakashi recognized who it was right away, and jolted out of the bed, realizing he was wearing quite literally nothing.

"Anko?" he exclaimed. "When...how...why?" He asked not sure what to do or say.

"Well...you were drunk and I didn't want you getting hurt by yourself, so I brought you back to my place, where you got a lil touchy and so did I, then we hopped in bed, and went at it like rabbits and now here we are. " She said bluntly, eyeing him up and down, already looking ready for another round. He noticed her eyeing his body and his hands immediacy shot in front of his crotch.

"Stop staring..." he said, hoping she would, but knowing that she wouldn't. Instead an evil smile was seen as she shot out of the bed, also naked, and pinned the Jonin to the floor.

"Your mine now Kakashi, and no one, and I mean no one else can have you, is that clear?" A deadly intent came from her voice as she leaned down, pressing her lips to the man's, promting him to respond. Of course he liked her too,who wouldn't, but there was no way in hell he was going to admit it...not when being scarred and shocked, seemed to be getting him allot farther than his usual act did.

~~scene change~~

Asuma took a puff out of his cigarette, and let it out slowly, feeling something wasn't right. Looking toward the sky, he wondered to himself what it could be.

"What's bothering you, Sensei?" Shikamaru said boringly as he walked up.

"Oh nothing..." Asuma replied, smiling to his smart, but lazy ass student. Shikamaru sighed then looked at his teacher.

"You've taken three times as many puffs a minute your normally do. You've let out about five or so sighs within the last thirty seconds, and your eyes seem to be glued to the clouds, something is obviously wrong." Shikamaru stated his observations. Asuma smirks.

"Well then." Asuma chuckled. "I have a feeling something bad has just happened...I just know it..." He said somewhat queasily. Ebisu walked up to the group now, more or less, toward Asuma.

"Hello Asuma. Sorry to just walk up to you like this but... Have you heard?" He said, not bothering to quiet his voice, or anything tasking normal.

"Heared what?" Asuma asked curiously.

"Naruto Uzumaki has been captured by the Akatsuki!" Ebisu said, sort loudly as others started to look toward their way. Asuma, as well as Shikamaru's eyes widened. Asuma's for the fact that Naruto, the kid who beat Neji, stopped the Shukaku host, beat Zabuza, Haku, nad Sasuke, even fought against Orochimaru and survived, is now in the custody of the Akatsuki. And Shikamaru for the fact that Naruto had been captured, though he was wondering what the Akatsuki was.

"What does Hokage-sama know of the situation?" Asuma asked, recovering from the shock.

"She's gave plans to Kurnenai to find Kakashi, and assemble a team of AMBU."

"Any orders for us?"

"Not yet no...All we can do right now is hope that it isn't too late."

~~~~Scene change~~~~~

"You are to join a team of Suna-nin near their village where they will aid you in the tracking and recovery of Uzumaki Naruto from Uchiha Itachi." Tsunade briefed the team of ANBU, "This is expected to be extremely dangerous, but we can't allow the organization Itachi works for to get Naruto for too long. Now move!"

The ANBU wordlessly disappeared in poufs of smoke.

"If Itachi's got him, I'm not sure we can recover him. Itachi became powerful more quickly than I did and must have continued to exhibit that quick growth rate." Kakashi said, not reading his little orange book for once.

"I know, but we must try. If Jiraiya spy is correct, they will suck the Kyuubi out of Naruto leaving him a withered husk, if that, and use its power to do who knows what." Tsunade said, taking yet another swig of sake.

"I know." Kakashi said solemnly as he left the room.

_~Scene Change~_

Itachi smiled as the boy sat up. "Glad your back with me, I was starting to worry." He joked lightly. Naruto groaned some, as he still ached in several areas of his body, not quite used to this using of Kyuubi chakra to this extent.

"Yea yea... What's going on, where are we?" Naruto asked quickly, noticing they were no longer anywhere that seemed like the Leaf Village or out posts.

"We are far in a sceluded place in Kaze no Kuni, near Suna. I had to travel quickly, while carrying you, just as we finished Hidan off, a team of Konoha ninja appeared, and I did not wish to increase any such bounty on your head, and did not want for reinforcements to come, so I got us out of there." He said quickly."Though by now, I'm sure the Kazekage's knows and he might have a team or two after us as well, our mission just got quite a bit harder im afraid." Naruto nodded to this, and sat quietly thinking, before closing his eyes.

~~scene change~~

Naruto walked in through his blank mind, and walked specifically toward the Fox's cage. "Alright fox, where we going now? We are in Kaze no Kuni, near Suna, but it's a big country, and we have ninja teams on our asses, so, where to?"

**"Well kit. There is a plateau, you can recognize it from the small tornados, sandstorms, the unusual shit you don't usally see on plateus, you know. But here's the thing. It's Real close, though it's on a plateau over looking Suna. We need to get through as quietly as possible, if there are ninja teams after us. The sage doesn't like too many unexpected visitors, especially those who wish to insitgate too much violence..."**

Naruto nodded before coming back into reality.

~~scene change~~

Naruto looked at Itachi, "We need to go a bit farther I'm afraid. According the Kyuubi, we need to go a little bit into Wind country."

Itachi sighed, "That fox better not have us on a wild goose chase..." Naruto gave Itachi a dark look.

"It doesn't matter if he is or isn't,? You better by god appreciate it, that he's even trying to look after us, after all, he could have attacked you while he used my body during our fight with Hidan. SO you better don't even start your fucking complain you understand me?" Naruto went off on the poor Nuke Nin. Itachi's eyes widened, shocked, this was a first in a long time that someone had the balls to do. Then a smile formed on his face.

"You're getting too cocky boy. Just because you have the nine tail fox, doesn't make you all mighty. You nearly lost to Sasuke, someone whom I can beat with ease, don't think that if I tried I couldn't hurt you to some extent...You never know... I'm pretty good at sealing Jutsu, all I would need to do would be to seal your demonic chakra away..." Itachi threatening said back, making sure the kid new that the Nine tailed fox can't cover him if it was sealed ever more so. Naruto smiled, liking the way Itachi could cover himself, and assuring him that Itachi wasn't just a push over.

"Alright Itachi. Let's just trust the fox then eh?" Naruto chuckled some more this was going to be an interesting journey.

~~scene change~~

Sui: Uh... here you go, sorry for the long wait. Arashi isn't here, because I'm the one who reads over the story to ensure that it is has as few errors and such as possible and we don't live close enough to gether to have him around every time I read over the finnished product.


	6. Chapter 6: The Begining

Sui: ... Sorry this took so long to get out, but here it is

_**End of authors note, since the line thing doesn't want to work.**_

_Several miles into the desert past Suna_

'We almost there fox?' Naruto inquired of the Kyuubi for what seemed to be the 50th time that hour.

**'Almost kit, just a bit further.'** The Kyuubi replied, just barely keeping himself from going off on the hyperactive teen.

Itachi walked stoically along, his black clothing not seeming to bother him in the least in the intense desert heat.

After only five minutes, a hazy figure became visible against the horizon. As Naruto and Itachi got closer, they quickly realized that it was a large plateau.

_'Holy hell, that thing's huge. Surely that's what we're looking for right Kyuubi.'_

**'Yep, now you just have to climb to the top. And remember not to use chakra, the one we're looking for will know if you do and will flee before you can get to the top.'**

_'If this guy is so powerful, why would he run?'_

**'He doesn't like company much, its better that he runs than the alternative.'**

_'Do I want to know?'_

**'He would only kill you'** The Kyuubi replied, almost jokingly.

By the time Naruto finished his conversation with his inner demon, they had reached the base of the massive rocky formation.

"Ok, the Kyuubi says that who we are looking for should be at the top of this place and we have to climb to the top. The only problem is that we can't use chakra to do so, or this guy might just kill us." Naruto informed Itachi.

Itachi stood completely still for a moment before his left eyebrow twitched, after which he began to wordlessly climb the massive plateau.

~Scene Change~

Kakashi caught up to the team of ANBU who had been waiting for him at the village gate.

"Alright... let's head out." Kakashi said, wearing his ANBU force uniform. He had been reinstated by Tsunade who thought it to be necessary that Kakashi go after them as Kakashi was Naruto's team leader. The teamed moved toward Suna at fast rate, not one slowing down in the least. I hope we can find him...

_Scene Change_

Naruto and Itachi sat upon the ground, gazing at the expanse that was the top of the formation. Just as the Kyuubi had said, it had and unnatural number of sandstorms and wind activity.

_'Ok, Kyuubi, what now?' _Naruto asked.

_**'Now you do exactly what I told you not to. You let off a large spike of chakra. That way, you can meet the sage more on your terms than his. When he arrives, you need to flare some of my chakra. Hopefully that will subdue him enough to explain things. First, though, there is something you will have to do for this to work.'**_

_'What is it?' _Naruto queried.

_**'I have finally completed modifying the kitsune summoning contract and you will have to summon me to explain things to him. If you don't he may kill you in an attempt to free me.'**_

_'Modifying?'_

_**'I needed you to be able to summon me, but due to the seal that binds me it would be impossible without my modifications. I won't be summoned at full power, the Shingami's seal makes sure of that, but I will be able to be summoned at a fraction of my power in a much smaller than before body. This ensures that I can explain things to the sages without them being suspicious.'**_

_'Oh.' _Naruto replied.

With that, Naruto was once again pulled into his mindscape before the Kyuubi's cage. This time, though, there was a large scroll sitting partially unrolled before the cage. The scroll was empty except for the area where he was to sign.

**"Just as a forewarning, this will sever your ties with the frogs. You will be unable to summon them and they will be unable to sense your presence."**

"I couldn't really do anything with them anyway, Jiraiya never really taught me anything, as you know."

**"Heh, the kitsune are better at fighting anyway. We are the best combat summon in existence and have a unit for everything, but I'll explain that later. For now you need to sign the contract. Also, as the boss, I will be giving you a summons tattoo. This will allow you to summon without seals and will allow for reverse summons by any authorized kitsune in case you need to make a quick escape in a tight spot."**

Without any further conversation, Naruto kneeled in front of the scroll, bit his thumb, and signed his name in blood, before pressing his blood to the end of each of his digits and pressing them below his name. As he pushed the ends of his fingers into the scroll, there was a burning sensation in the center of his palm, and, when he pulled his hand away, there was a tattoo that covered his entire palm. It was a simple piece, nothing more than the kanji for kitsune.

**"Now get a move on boy." **The massive fox said with his trademark vicious grin before pushing Naruto out of his mind.

Upon his return, Naruto saw Itachi looking at him oddly.

"Talking to the fox." Naruto said in explanation.

Itachi merely nodded, being used to unusual things involving Naruto by now.

_Scene Change_

Kakashi and his team of AMBU had appeared in front of the building which housed the Kazekage. Here we go... Kakashi stepped in, having his team follow silently in pursuit.

~~scene change~~

Temari stepped into the Kazekage's office...

"Brother... Konoha's ANBU team is here... shall I send them in?" She said. Garra only nodded his head, ready to debrief the Leaf's team.

'_Damn... I was hoping to have caught Naruto by now...'_ Garra thought to himself as Kakashi and a team of three more ANBU walked in.

"Hello, Kakashi. We have many of our own squads looking for Naruto throughout our territory. Our scouts last saw tracks heading deeper into the desert past us. So start your search in that direction." Garra said, using his usual cold voice. Kakashi nodded and Shushined away, along with his squad, out of the Kazekage's room. Sand fell from the top and got sucked into Garra's gourd...

"DAMN IT, NEW RULE, NO SHUSHIINING IN MY OFFICE!" Garra yelled, pissed as the extra weight caused him to fall on his ass.

_Scene Change_

Naruto let off a small flare of chakra, creating a small, brief aura of chakra to form around his body.

Upon Itachi's raised eyebrow, Naruto explained.

"Kyuubi says that now that we're at the top, we need to attract the attention of the guy we're looking for. After that, we let Kyuubi handle things."

As Naruto finished, the wind around them picked up, kicking more sand into the air and all but destroying their visibility.

**"Hmm. It's been a long time since I've had company. Unfortunately for you, I don't like company."** A voice rumbled from around them, seeming to come from every side.

Naruto quickly flared a burst of Kyuubi's chakra before quickly following with his summons.

Naruto bit his thumb and wiped the blood across the kanji on his palm. There was a small poof of smoke, typical of summons, before the smoke cleared in the furious winds. Sitting on the ground was a mini version of the Kyuubi with only one tail.

**"Now, Now, Zephyr, Is that any way to treat guests?"** The small fox called out.

**"Kyuubi-Sama?"** The person now identified as Zephyr called, clearly shocked.

**"No, I'm the ghost of your forefathers, come to haunt you."** Kyuubi called sarcastically, **"Now stop this annoying breeze so we can talk face to face."**

**"Still sarcastic and humorless Kyuubi?"** Zephyr called, the wind dying down, the sand falling with it, to reveal a fox about the size of a dog.

The fox had sandy, grey-tinted fur and grey eyes. No whites, just the pupils and grey expanse.

**"Still a bipolar psychopath?" **Kyuubi responded, a grin forming of his face.

~Scene change~

The ANBU team reached the plateau, suppressing their chakra to the bare minimum for the time being. Kakashi spoke up in a loud whisper.

"Alright as we all know our target is Naruto Uzumaki, if we find him. If Itachi Uchiha is seen, let me deal with him. Your target and objective is Naruto. Understood?" The team nodded.

Kakashi hoped they would be here, as they rushed the plateau being silent, but using chakra to quickly climb it. After all, this was a search, if Naruto wasn't here, they would need to call in to confirm it and continue on the search.

Kakashi could see the top in his sight and wouldn't be but less than a minute before he would and so would his team reach the top. He just hoped that Naruto would be up here...

_Scene Change_

Tsunade sighed once more as she continued to do her mountains of paperwork.

_'I really should have a small army of secretaries for this kind of stuff. Most of it is minor village workings, not something the kage of a shinobi village should be wasting her time doing.'_ Tsunade thought.

At that moment Shizune entered the room, another stack of paperwork in her arms.

"Shizune, start work on finding a group of civilians to go over this paperwork, almost all of it pertains to things that a lower government official could attend to and it eats up too much of my time." Tsunade ordered before going back to the stacks of paperwork, not even sparing Shizune a glance.

"Hai, Shishou." Shizune replied.

_'Tsunade-Sama has really changed since Naruto left. She doesn't constantly try to dodge her paperwork, she drinks less, and she even hasn't hit anyone in days.'_ Shizune thought to herself as she left the office.

_Scene change_

Hinata was still somewhat depressed. It had been days, maybe weeks or so since any had seen her smile. Though, had any seen in her mind, they would see that she was hiding her true feelings.

Inside she was pissed, downright ticked off, at the Council, and even more so at Sasuke. In her eyes had Sasuke not been such a bitch Naruto would still be here. She sat up quickly, having been in her room. Then as if something possessed her, she walked out of her room and straight out of the Hyuuga complex. When a guard had asked her where she was going, she told him that he didn't need to know, proceeded by, with an if you don't like you, you can kiss my ass attitude. Where did Hinata head off too? Yea... that would be a question the guard would dread to try and answer to Hiashi...

~~scene change~~

Hinata arrived at the training ground, looking at the post that stood there, and the worn in area where people had punched, kicked, and generally beat the shit out of it. She took her stance, and with a powerful blow she struck the wood. One after another, she relentlessly struck it, kicks and all.

~~scene change~~

"What do you mean... you don't know where my Daughter is?" Hiashi asked the guard. The guard trembled and whispered out.

"I-I uh... I mean... she... uh...she just left the compound sir... and uh..."

"Not a good enough answer..." Hiashi stared at the man, with a death cold look in his eyes. In one hand he had his family's katana. In the other... he had a stone, sharpening the katana's blade. "You had better find her... or... It'll be you who'll suffer the consequences..." The guard straightened up and left Hiashi's office. After the door shut, the guard let out a breath of relief for the time being... but any who saw him would laugh... as he apparently was so scared...he pissed himself.

(We don't own this scene, it belongs to the list Ten Rules for Dating my Daughter by Hyuuga Hiashi created by Shawny Wong).

_Scene change_

"Bipolar psychopath?" Naruto questioned, looking at the odd sandy grey fox.

**"He's not actually bipolar. The Kitsune Sennin have personalities that are naturally similar to their elements. No one has ever figured it out to date, most are too afraid that they will annoy the Sennin and get eaten or something."** Kyuubi replied of handedly.

"Yeah that makes me feel _much_ better." Naruto replied sarcastically.

**"Their powerful as hell though and I'm going to have all of them train you at one point or another. So don't worry, if you survive, you'll probably be stronger than anyone else around." **Kyuubi said.

Off the side, Itachi was rather glad that he wasn't in this increasingly odd conversation.

"Hey what about Itachi? What is he going to be doing?" Naruto suddenly questioned, as though in answer to Itachi's thoughts.

**"Well, I suppose I can have the Sennin teach him a few things. Not nearly as much as you will learn, and not the same stuff in some instances, though. For example, each Sennin has a taijutsu style that you will learn that is unique to them; the weasel-boy will not be learning this. This also extends to some of the jutsu you will be learning and some secret techniques you will learn."**

"That makes sense, I guess."

Meanwhile, Itachi was still off to the side. Though, this time his eyebrow was, once again, twitching.

**"We have company, several shinobi of at least high Jonin level by their chakra levels."** Zephyr spoke for the first time since Naruto and Kyuubi began their conversation.

**"Hmm, that just won't do. I was hoping that they thought Naruto was dead since they saw him carried off by the weasel-boy."** Kyuubi mused.

"They might think that I'm still working for Akatsuki and am taking him to have his biju removed and are trying to kill him to prevent that." Itachi said, speaking for the first time since Zephyr appeared.

**"Perhaps, at which point, we should strive to keep that appearance up. It will help us greatly if they mark Naruto down as dead."**

**"I have a sort of hideout near here that I can conceal to the point that they won't be able to find us." **Zephyr said.

**"Hmm, that's a good idea. Let's go before our unwelcome company arrives."** Kyuubi said before they all followed Zephyr over the plateau

~Scene Change~

Kakashi used all his strength, to get up here as quickly as he did. He could sense Naruto's chakra.

"Almost there Naruto..." He said urging himself to go on.

He wasn't sure where exactly the rest of his ANBU team was at, he knew behind him of course... but not sure where exactly. He was blinded by the goal...One could say. He used his left hand to lift up his head band to reveal his Sharingan eye. He reached the top and what did he see? Nothing... but foot prints... one pair... obviously a civilian… and something else... like paw prints. What was a civilian doing here? Could it be that was Itachi was wearing now? But what about Naruto, where were his prints?

_Scene Change_

"We lost Kakashi-Sempai." an ANBU wearing a bear mask stated as the group stood looking around to try to figure out were Kakashi had gone.

"You don't happen to have another tracker do you?" One of the Suna shinobi said.

"No."

"Well, Shit. How are we going to get back to Suna, none of us have ever been out this far and we didn't memorize the way back." The apparent leader of the Suna team said.

And so begins the unfortunate adventure of a group of Suna shinobi and Konoha ANBU.

_Scene change_

**"Just a little further to my hideout."** Zephyr said.

Itachi, carrying Naruto, who had un-summoned Kyuubi, nodded his assent as Naruto simply sat over his shoulder, looking very disgruntled.

Zephyr stopped at a seemingly random dune before he released a small pulse of chakra. As he did so, the front of the dune wavered and faded away to reveal a tunnel that led underground.

Zephyr quickly entered, followed by Itachi, and put his genjutsu back up as soon as they were in.

Naruto jumped off of Itachi's back in joy at being able to move under his own power again.

**"Follow me, and don't go down any of the side tunnels. I don't want to have to spend my night searching for you if you get lost."**

Zephyr moved deeper into the tunnel, quickly followed by Itachi and Naruto

_Scene Change_

Kakashi began the descent back down the plateau slowly. At first everything seemed to be alright, He was in charge of his ANBU team and trying to complete a mission certainly the type of old days he liked to remember. Kakashi stopped.

"Hey what the?" he noticed that his ANBU team had somehow disappeared, but how? Was he in that much out of it that Kakashi didn't sense their disappearance?

"Hello Dear..." the voice was feminine...

"No...Not you, ANKO!"

_Scene Change_

_'Sand... Sand... Sand... Sand... I wonder what Bear-Sempai is thinking. He is an ANBU captain; he must have numerous strategies and such for getting us out of here going through his head.'_

In the Bear ANBU's mind

_'Sand... Sand... Sand... OH! Scorpion! ... Sand... Sand'_

"Ok, if we pass one more sand dune that looks like a cat, I'm going to go ape shit on someone!" A random Suna shinobi said.

_Twenty seconds later._

"NO! NO! Calm down, Shigure! CALM DOWN!"

(We also don't own this scene. I don't remember who does, but if you know, tell us and I'll put it in).

_Scene change_

Tsunade sighed, placing her head into her hands. "Why did this have to happen?" After all this was over and Naruto was back, the first thing she would do would be to go on vacation... if the stress didn't kill her first.

There was a knock at the door. Tsunade grumbled, "Come in..."

Iruka walked in and sat down in front of her. "Has there been any sign of him, Lady Hokage?" He asked, sad and worried.

"No, not yet. But we can't afford to send any more Ninja teams out there, I've already send Anko as backup. We'll just have to hope for the best..."

_Scene Change_

Anko pinned Kakashi down. "I was told to meet up with you... and so I am..." She whispered lustfully into his ear.

"But… the team..." Kakashi tried to say.

"Well do it quick... come on Kakashi... Please... won't you take me?" Anko whispered, voice oh so filled with lust...

~~ 5 minutes alter~~

"Talk about fucking quick Kakashi, I didn't mean that quick!" Anko yelled loudly... Kakashi got up, and looked at her.

"Well... don't tell me to go quick if you don't mean it..." Kakashi said walking toward where the ANBU left way earlier. Anko followed, adjusting her clothes.

'_I'm going get you back Kakashi... just you wait.'_

_Scene Change_

**"Ok, the shinobi forces are gone. The sandstorm I called up erased our tracks and forced him to abandon his search."** Zephyr informed Itachi and Naruto as they awoke, **"Now we should begin your training, Kyuubi-Sama informed me that you can only stay here a short time as well as gave me an overview of your skills."**

Zephyr formed a clone that fazed into existence.

**"Weasel-boy will go with my clone to learn some minor things while I teach Naruto personally."**

After Itachi left, eyebrow twitching once more, Zephyr began speaking again.

**"Now, boy, what do you know of nature chakra?"** Zephyr questioned.

_Scene change_

* * *

Sui: Line thing's working again. Well, that's all folks. By the way, this is the last chapter... before the time skip that is. As in, the next chapter will be about five years later in the timeline and Naruto will have completed his training and such.

To Chibiryuu: Keep in mind that, while Kakashi has failed as a teacher in this, Naruto is not an idiot and has a melinia old fox backing him up. He has his ways of getting into scrolls he shouldn't be in.

Uzumaki Ricky: ... Tone it down dude, I like the enthusiasim, but all caps is somewhat annoying.


	7. Chapter 7

Sui: Yep, another chapter out. Hope you like this one. It shows off a little bit of what Naruto and Itachi can do and how they compary to ordinary ninja. Worry not though, their enemies are just as powerfu and dangerous.

* * *

It had been five years since Kakashi had failed to find his pupil and mentor's son. Five years of grief, with every look at the Hokage to be reminding him of his failure. He had, since then, married and settled down, with Anko. Who bore him a son of his own, a son he named Minato Naruto Hatake. The first name for a reminder never to forget what his mentor taught him, and the middle, to remind himself of what happens if he ever neglected his mentor's teachings. Kakashi was now in charge of a three genin team, again, this time with two girls and one boy. One could only hope they would get along.

Kakashi walked up to the mission desk, and looked around slowly. His new squad had been doing great and Believe it or not Kakashi thought it was time for a real mission, not catching cats, or digging holes, but a C rank mission.

"Hm... protect a transport of goods from here to Sand village... I guess that one will do." He said out loud as he signed up team seven for the mission. From there he left and met his squad at the training grounds, amazingly only two minutes late.

"Sorry I'm late... traffic you know?"

The male of the squad laughed

"Kakashi-sensei! You're a ninja; you don't have to deal with traffic!" The boy yelled at Kakashi who looked on before realizing something was amiss. A girl's hand launched out of the ground, attempting to grab Kakashi's foot before he just barely jumped out of reach, before turning around to see the third member of his squad coming toward him, her legs flying towards his face. Kakashi grabbed her leg, before managing to grab her second leg aimed toward his mid section. The male took this opportunity to strike at Kakashi's back. Bam instant contact with... a log.

"You three are getting better and better everyday. But enough of that, we start our first C rank Mission tomorrow. So we are going to train a bit more before going home early. Pack everything you will need to get you from here to Sand Village while guarding a transport of goods from Bandits. Understood?" Kakashi said, jumping down from a tree. The three students nodded and walked off leaving Kakashi with a sigh. Kakashi made his way toward the Monument Stone. This was pretty much a set thing Kakashi had done before starting the very first C mission, though this was only the fourth team he had that got this far in five years.

_Scene Change_

"So, do you think anything will happen on the mission." the male member of the team, who's name is Osoroshii Omoide, stood at about five foot six inches. He wore black standard shinobi style pants, an old style black shinobi shirt (think old movie ninja shirts), a pair of black combat boots, and had his head band wrapped around his left arm. He, quite noticeably, had no kunai pouch at his thigh.

"Nah, my sensei at the hospital says that fighting is rare on C-ranked missions, especially those given to fresh genin." One of the girls, Li Omoide, said. She was Osoroshii's twin sister, standing at about five feet three inches. She wore blue shinobi pants, a shirt in the same style as her brother, a pair of shinobi sandals, had her head band wrapped around her right arm, and was training to be a medical ninja. She also had no kunai pouch.

"It could also increase in rank; it's been known to happen." The second girl on the team, Kibo Shokan said. She stood at five foot five inches. Kibo wore standard shinobi pants, tucked into combat boots, a standard shinobi style shirt, and had her head band around her neck, like a choker.

"That would be fun." Osoroshii said grinning at the chance to fight a shinobi.

"No it wouldn't! We could die!" Li argued.

"Yes it would! We would finally get to test ourselves in a real shinobi fight!" Osoroshii argued back.

"Don't even start; I don't want to have to deal with a headache the day before our first C-rank." Kibo glared at the eternally arguing twins.

"Well, this is where we split up, see you tomorrow Kibo." Li said as she began to drag her brother back to their house, which lay in the opposite direction as Kibo's.

_Scene Change_

The next morning was something most unusual. Kakashi was waiting at the gates before his own squad...

"Hurry up you three..." He said, sort of excited. Most would say that Kakashi had lost it, but only a select few knew why he was so happy to go all of a sudden. It was his way of trying to make sure Naruto's spirit was in any squad he had, even if none of the others would act this way. Kakashi had to, at least in the beginning. The three genin looked at him, laughed some and stopped.

"Well Kakashi sensei, where is the transport?" Li asked her sensei. She wore the same gear as before a slight smile on her face trying to restrain herself from laughing at Kakashi. It was now, that Kakashi got serious.

"It should be here any second. Now orders are we get this to Sand village, additional requirements are that we don't open it, we get it there and leave. Got it?" Kakashi's voice was serious; His eye that wasn't covered up staring seriously at the students. All three nodded, and realized that Kakashi wasn't going to be the usually cool laid back teacher, but was now in strict mission mode.

A young man, about in his 20's or so walked toward the gate, to be more precise, straight toward the New team seven. He looked at Kakashi and was holding a small box.

"Are you four ready? We need to get moving."

Kakashi nodded, he knew the man was slightly scared for a different reason then what was said. The man hid the box under a cloak that he was wearing,

_Scene Change_

It was several days into the trip, travel taking longer than it normally would due to the presence of a civilian, and everything was seemingly going well. Kakashi's team had been watching carefully since they had left and had yet to encounter any problems.

This, however, was about to change. As the team and the man they were escorting were nearing the border between Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni, they saw a pair of people in the distance. The man on their left stood at about five foot ten inches. He wore black shinobi pants, black shinobi sandals, an ANBU style shirt, a straw hat, had a kunai pouch strapped to his thigh, and a ninja pouch at his waist. His companion stood at six foot three inches. He wore the same style pants as his companion, but in blue, a black training gi( kind of like the shirts worn by Dragon Ball Z characters, most notably Goku, just not the same color), a straw hat, a kunai pouch strapped to his thigh, a ninja pouch at his waist, and a sword sat at his waist on his right. He appeared to have no left arm, as the sleeve was empty.

Kakashi was instantly suspicious of the new travelers, but decided to not attack in case they weren't hostile. This decision was rethought as they came closer and he recognized them from the bingo book. The man on their left was the infamous Hi no Arashi, a name he had earned through his use of impossibly powerful fire jutsu and a unique fire jutsu that he was supposed to have created himself. The man on the right was known be two primary titles. The first was a name he had earned from time spent in Iwa, the Ryuketsu no Senko, due to his frightening speed that reminded them of the Yondaime Hokage's Hiraishin. The other name was supposed to be something he had devised for himself, the Kitsune Sennin, a name that deeply disturbed the shinobi of Konoha for the reminder of Naruto and the Kyuubi.

Kakashi knew that these two worked as mercenaries and were too powerful to risk being attacked first, especially since they were said to only be seen by those who they worked for or needed to confront to do a job.

The three genin noticed how their Sensei had suddenly stopped. Automatically reaching to pull his headband off his Sharingan Eye, they knew this was serious.

"Take our client and get out of here. I'll see if i can hold them off.!" Kakashi said, dead serious. His students knew well who these mysterious people were, and knew chances of their survival was limited to near nothing if they fought. The boy of the group hoisted the man onto his back and ran, with the two girls covering him, making sure of no attacks were coming.

"Oh is that such a way to greet two travelers Hatake?" The one on Kakashi's left. Kakashi made a serious face, grabbing the kunai from his pouch.

"It's no use Arashi, Kakashi won't let us pass. He'd rather die before doing so." The "Sennin" said.

Kakashi took the opening as they, the two enemies, talked. Not wasting time he created two super clones, to create an opening. One went at the Hi no Arashi, and the other at Sennin. The one attacking Arashi was throwing kunai's, which Hi no Arashi easily deflected. Kakashi took the opening, readying a chidori, and aimed for the man's neck. In a poof of smoke the man was gone, a kick already flying at Kakashi. Poof, a log was in Kakashi's place as he appeared behind Arashi shoving the chidori into… thin air? The other clone was gone, not even lasting the second that this other battle was going on. Sennin watched the battle, knowing that Arashi was just toying with Kakashi.

"Hurry up, Arashi. The longer we take here, the longer the time it takes for us to get what we are looking for." His voice was cool and laced with and underlying tone of venom.

The next second was a blur, as Kakashi felt a sharp pain; it was a jab, right into his gut, with enough force to make him cough up blood. The next blur was a spinning hook kick to Kakashi's face, sending him flying. The last blur was the intense pain of a stab into his chest. Kakashi was shocked as at the speed and brutal efficiency. The man had moved faster than his Sharingan eye could keep up with. Kakashi didn't have a chance to even block... this was fast... real fast.

"Ugh." Kakashi spat up some more blood.

"Impressive Hatake. Most don't survive the first attack, let alone the stone kick into the head or the kunai stab into the chest. You won't die yet if you're as strong as the bingo book said you are... as long as you don't move much, at least..." Arashi said, leaving the kunai buried in Kakashi's chest.

"Was that fast enough... Sennin?" Arashi asked, starting to move towards their target.

"No... Too slow for my taste. But alas, now with one of Konoha's top Jonin down... our bounties not only increased, but the target maybe harder to get." Sennin replied.

In a flash he was gone, quickly followed by Arashi. Kakashi did some hand seals, summoning his Ninja dogs, though only two of them.

"Go... help my squad... and get them to... Konoha..." Kakashi struggled to say. Kakashi's chidori had dissipated the moment, Kakashi lost focus. Not only did he let that drain him, but, he wasn't even able to inflict any damage. Reaching into his ninja pouch, he took two soldier pills and a blood replenishing pill and forced himself up, quickly following behind the two Deadly enemies.

By the time Kakashi arrived, the two mercenaries had nearly reached his students, Kakashi only being a hairs breadth behind them.

Kakashi and the two shinobi landed in the clearing at nearly the same time.

"Keep running, I'll hold them off for a little while longer." Kakashi wheezed out.

"Sensei! How can we leave you? You have a kunai in your chest and can barely stand!" Osoroshii argued.

"And you wouldn't even stand against them for a second." Kakashi retorted.

The one who had been identified as Sennin sighed.

"If you leave the box and run, we will let you live. We have a tight schedule and need to get the box to where we need it rather quickly."

"Why do you even want this thing, the rank for this mission is only C-rank?" Kibo said.

"Is that what they told you? Konoha can't detect when clients are lying about the difficultly of the mission then. It is imperative that we get what is in that box." Sennin replied, his tone loosing any sort of emotion, "Now leave or we will kill you all and simply take the box."

"That would be much more difficult than you may like." Called out the apparent leader of an ANBU squad, "Sorry that we're late, we ran into your nin-ken on our way back to Konoha and decided to come help out."

Another sigh escaped Sennin, "You really should just give up, we are S-ranked shinobi and none of you are above A-rank. To top it off, you have to protect your client and the genin as well."

The man named Arashi sighed too as well. "Look either give us the box, or we kill you all... slowly."

Kakashi glared at the man, before dropping to one knee, the soldier pills slowly starting to wear off. The ANBU squad rushed forward, attempting to attack the Sennin and Arashi. In a blink of the eye, Sennin had moved to near where the genin forces where, the ANBU squad lying dead.

Kakashi struggled to get up, running to the Genin and forcing them to run, even with the client. He dared not stop as the one called Sennin looked around at Arashi.

"Sorry, I figured I'd let you finish the others off if need be."

Kakashi and the others were out of sight, though Kakashi was starting to slow considerably. Osoroshii hoisted Kakashi onto his shoulders, and struggled to keep up with his teammates.

"Put me down Osoroshii. You have to get yourself out of here, the teacher is supposed to die to protect his students!" Kakashi complained, though his students didn't listen. The two girls and the client were up front before they suddenly stopped. They were looking at the two they saw earlier.

"No, we're done for!" the client yelled, before tripping back over his feet and wetting his pants like a frightened child. The two kuniochi stepped in front of him. Both having a kunai out, they were prepared to fight to the death against these opponents. Osoroshii was still behind some, being slower due to carrying Kakashi.

"Out of our way. We would prefer to not have to kill kids." Arashi said, calmly. The next instant, there was a red flash. The two girls were on their backs, as Sennin leaned down to remove the box from the man's cloak.

"Now let's go" Sennin told Arashi, who nodded disappearing in a small poof of smoke. Osoroshii had arrived during as Sennin flashed away, and Kakashi recognized the jutsu he used immediately.

'_The Hiraishin? Is it possible someone had replicated the Yondaime's signature jutsu?'_

_Time skip to the briefing on the failed mission_

"You say you ran into the infamous Hi no Arashi and Kitsune Sennin? And they wanted the box?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied, his head hanging in shame at failing.

"Don't get yourself down, Kakashi. I doubt that even Jiraiya could have beaten those two, you should be glad that you are alive. However, it is odd that they wanted the box so much as to kill an entire squad of ANBU and risk us sending hunter-nin after them." Tsunade consoled.

"It was really weird, they said that they needed to get the box somewhere quickly." Osoroshii spoke up.

Tsunade sighed, "As bad off as we've been since Naruto was banished, this is not going to help our economy. Having one of our strongest shinobi completely helpless on a C-rank mission, despite the fact that you ran into two S-rank shinobi, will lower our reputation significantly. You are dismissed, get some rest."

Arashi, and Sennin both appeared before a cave, before deciding to stop. Take a few breathes, Arashi used a seal that prevented anyone from reaching their campsite so they could rest for the night.

"Is this it?"

"Yes, Itachi it is. We finally have it."

_Scene Change_

"Tell me exactly what was in that box, sir, and why you only wrote down for a C-rank mission, when it should be clearly S-rank. We shouldn't have sent only one genin squad with you, we should had sent out the entire squad of Jonin and ANBU, and perhaps even me!" Tsunade yelled at the man. The man cowered before letting out a sigh.

"What was in that box...was top secret. The only ones to know was the Kazekage and I, and that's for a very good reason…" The man said slowly, "What was in the box was..."

_Scene Change_

Garra looked out from his balcony. A Pigeon had just flown off from it and he let out yet another of his one too many sighs. A ninja shushined into the room and stood behind the Kazekage.

"Kazekage-Sama! Forgive me but this is important."

"What is it?"

"They have it sir. They have the box."

_Scene Change_

"Now that we have it, Sou'unga is complete and can't harm anyone." Sennin said as he pulled a purple colored orb that was about the size of a baseball from the box. The orb fairly radiated an aura of hatred and evil. Sennin slid the left side of his shirt off, revealing that his left arm was wrapped in medical tape that was covered in seals.

After pulling the evil suppressing seals off of Sou'unga, Sennin drew the sword with his left hand. Taking the orb in his right, he put it into the hollow at the end of the sword where it had originally rested. As he did so, the aura of malice nearly quadrupled and purplish tentacles sprouted from the handle where it connected to the blade. The tentacles moved towards Naruto's arm, only to be blasted back by a lighter purplish aura that radiated from several of the seals. The tentacles quickly retreated back into the blade with an odd hissing noise. Sennin re-sheathed Sou'unga before replacing the evil suppressing seals, in greater numbers this time.

_Scene Change_

"What was in the box was an ancient artifact known as the Jigoku no Me (hell's eye). It is, in legend, all that remains of a sword that was supposed to be able to raise hell itself into the human realm. The reason we didn't want anyone to know about its importance is that anyone who comes into contact with the Jigoku no Me begins to go insane and eventually starts spouting off things about the sword of legend and hell and demons. We knew that if this information got out, then people seeking the power of the Jigoku no Me and the sword of legend would attack." He explained to Tsunade.

Tsunade sighed, sensing that something very bad was going to happen soon.

_~Scene Change~_

"What do you mean they have the box? Who?" Garra yelled, enraged at the loss of such a dangerous item.

"According to the information we got, the transport was attacked by two S-ranked shinobi, Hi no Arashi and the self proclaimed Kitsune Sennin."

"Send out a team to retrieve it, we can't let anyone get what is in the box."

The team of ANBU Sand ninja poofed out of the Kazekage's room in an inevitably futile attempt to track down the two ninja, from where they were last seen. Garra looked around before taking a deep breath. _'Damn it...'_

_Scene Change_

Kakashi struggled to open his eyes. The night before he didn't sleep too well but now he was awake, though barely. The sun light had filtered through his window, and he wondered what was going on. It's true he had been living with Anko for a while, but, normally, she liked to keep the room dark.

"_Hm, oh well.'_ Kakashi thought before slipping back into the land of dreams.

_At Garra's office after the failed attempt to find Sennin and Arashi_

"I'm sorry Kazekage-sama; we could find no trace of them. It's as though they simply disappeared into thin air." The Suna ANBU reported.

"You are dismissed. Go rest." Garra replied, staring out the window of his office.

"Hai Kazekage-sama." The ANBU replied in unison before leaving.

_At Orochimaru's... lair I guess you can call it._

"Kukukuku. Soon Konoha will fall and I will have my perfect body." Orochimaru said to himself as the dignitaries from Iwa, Kumo, and Mizu departed.

_At wherever the Akatsuki gather._

"Now is the time. Begin capturing your assigned targets." Pein ordered the gathered Akatsuki members.

_Several months later. Hokage's office_

"We're fighting a losing battle, Jiraiya." Tsunade sighed as she drank some sake

"I know Tsu-hime. Three on two, and with Akatsuki after Garra and the other jinchurikki, are not good odds. If we don't find some way to match them, then we will lose". Jiraiya replied, also drinking.

"But how can we win? Ever since Naruto was banished, and subsequently died, we've been pretty much on our own. I'm somewhat surprised that Suna is even helping us."

"We could always hire mercenaries. It's a little risky, but if we keep the number down and hire powerful ones, then we should be fine." Jiraiya offered.

"Who though? And where will we get the money to pay them anyway."

"I have an idea as to who we hire. I'll leave in the morning and, hopefully, I will return with some S-ranked help." Jiraiya said, jumping out the window.

_With Itachi and Naruto... Wherever they are._

"This war is quite troubling." Itachi stated.

"Yeah, I don't like it. If Orochimaru wins, and at this rate he will, then who knows what sort of hell the elemental nations will be subjected to."

"What are you implying, Naruto?" Itachi said suspiciously.

"I think we are going to have to join Konoha and Suna in their fight against the others. I don't like Konoha, but there are still some people in that village that still deserve to live and I can't let Suna die."

"Are you sure? I know that you have some really bad memories there"

"Yeah, I'll just deal with it. We'll move out in the morning and offer our services as mercenaries to them." Naruto replied before lying down and going to sleep.

_Scene Change. With Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma_

"You ready for this you two?" Asuma asked, taking a puff from his cancer stick. Kakashi simply nodded, having his headband up, revealing his Sharingan eye. Gai leapt up and started to go on about the flames of youth. Just then, a group of 5 Sound Shinobi encircled them.

Gai leapt up, and, in a blinding flash attacked one of the Jonin of the group head on. Asuma followed suit, holding his special chakra blade knuckle dusters as Kakashi looked at the three others.

"Mangekyo Sharingan." He whispered. A portal seemed to appear out of nowhere, as the three frightened Shinobi tried to escape, but to no avail, as the black hole like portal swallowed them up. The other two comrades of Kakashi were done beating their enemies, or in Asuma's case cutting, their opponents into bite-sized pieces.

"Alright, out post 2 secure. I'll move on to out post 3. Kakashi, you take out post 4. Gai you take out post 5." Asuma said. The three Jonin shushined to where they needed to be. In the battle, there had to be at least a three man Jonin squad at the out posts of Konoha at all times. As Oto liked to try to sneak in suddenly, at random times and places.

_Scene Change_

Anko breathed out slowly as she walked out of the bathroom. She couldn't let any others know. She couldn't even believe that this was true. In the instant she quickly turned back around and ran back into the bathroom, throwing up in the toilet once more. "This is the second time I've had morning sickness. today, and the third day in a row... Is it possible?"

_Scene Change_

Naruto and Itachi awoke quickly. Quickly getting dressed, they made their way to the road and began towards the place that Naruto wished to never see again, Konoha. It wasn't too long before a man with long white hair, and was kind of goofy looking stepped towards them.

"Hi no Arashi, Kitsune Sennin. I need to speak with you."

Naruto's thoughts jumped quickly_. 'It's Jiraiya! Does he know? No it isn't possible. I wonder what he wants though.'  
_  
As Naruto thought this, Itachi spoke up "What is it, old man, we have no time for casual conversations, and unless you have some business, we will kill you for blocking our way."

It wasn't normal of Itachi to say this, but time was of the essence if they wanted to help Konoha.

"I would like to make you an offer. I know that you two work as mercenaries and Konoha happens to be seeking your employment." Jiraiya said.

"Really now?" Itachi said, taking care to not reveal that they were heading to Konoha to offer their services, "And what can Konoha offer us? Last I heard, your village is all but broke and on the losing side of the war."

"We have more than enough money to pay the price for your employ." Jiraiya negotiated.

Naruto and Itachi looked at each other for a moment, communicating silently, before Naruto spoke.

"Very well. We will accompany you to Konoha to see if you can offer enough to keep our loyalty."

With that, Naruto, Itachi, and Jiraiya leapt off in the direction of Konoha

_Scene Change_

Tsunade took another swig of her sake, before putting it up. She hoped Jiraiya wouldn't disappoint them, as S-rank mercenaries could save them, but could also destroy them. She only wondered who, they might be. There was a quick knock on the door as Tsunade hid her sake.

"Come in." The Hokage said softly. Hinata walked in and looked at her.

"Lady Hokage, what is it you wanted me here for?" She asked. She stood up right and strong, not fearing any thing.

"Hinata, we have two mercenaries coming here, it will be your job to be their medic, and to keep an eye on them in case they betray us."

Hinata nodded and turned to leave, "What time should we expect them?"

"I don't know. Just whenever Jiraiya brings them here."

_Scene Change._ _Mid-day at the outposts._

Kakashi sat down, having his headband back over his eye, taking deep breathes, along with Gai and Asuma.

"How many more are there? We must have killed hundreds." Kakashi complained, taking a deep breathe. Gai did the same but said nothing as Asuma took a puff from his cigarette.

"Well good news is they stopped for now."

_Council room with Tsunade, the council members, Itachi, Naruto, and Jiraiya._

"You are aware why your presence has been requested?" Tsunade asked the two mercenaries standing before her.

"You wish to employ us to aid in your war." Itachi replied.

"Correct. We are willing to pay you 50,000 ryo each for your services for the duration of the war." Tsunade offered.

"50,000? We would be fighting a war against a superior force that has a large advantage and would be fighting on the losing side. We want 1,000,000 ryo each for our services for the duration of the war and we will be given asylum from any crimes, ones committed in this nation and others, whenever we wish it." Itachi said, narrowing his eye's in annoyance at their low offer.

"100,000 and asylum from all crimes you both have ever committed." Tsunade offered.

"800,000 and asylum."

Tsunade glanced at the counsel members before making another offer.

"500,000 ryo to each of you for the duration of the war and you are pardoned for all crimes you have committed in this country and will have asylum from the other nations."

Naruto sent a look at Itachi before he could reply.

"Very well, we accept." Naruto spoke for the first time.

"We will provide lodgings for you for the duration of your stay with us and you will be assigned a Konoha shinobi to act as your medic." Tsunade said.

"You mean act as our watcher." Itachi stated rather than asked.

"I assure you; she has personally trained under me and is the best medic we have short of me."

"We do not need a medic; we are able to heal ourselves." Naruto sent Itachi another look, "But we will tolerate her presence, I suppose." Itachi finished.

"Jiraiya will show you to where you will stay and you will meet your team member when we do the evaluation of your skill." Tsunade said, "Be at training ground 34 tomorrow at 10 AM."

With that, Naruto and Itachi left with Jiraiya.

"Only 500, 000 thousand ryo? Hn, cheap skates..." Itachi mumbled under his breathe, as Jonin looked at him and Naruto muttering things about the Hi No Arashi and Kitsune Sennin. Naruto let out a sigh but deep down he had a feeling that this was going to be more difficult once they met their new team member.

Just then a female Jonin pushed past the three people walking and headed straight for the Hokage's tower.

"Hey watch out there woman!" Itachi said out loud, already annoyed due to the day's events, as Anko stopped.

"I'M NOT IN THE FUCKING MOOD FOR ANY SHIT RIGHT NOW, SHUT THE FUCK UP, LEAVE ME ALONE, OR I'LL MAKE OROCHIMARU'S EXPERIMENTS LOOK LIKE CHILD'S PLAY AFTER I'M DONE WITH YOU!" she screamed, obviously pissed off. Itachi made to move before Naruto stopped him.

"Don't... we don't need any deaths on the first day for one. And for two, we don't need to kill two people." he whispered toward Itachi, who nodded understanding.

_Scene Change_

Anko took a deep breath as she knocked on Tsunade's door.

"Come in." the Hokage said softly, the soft clank of a sake bottle being put up was heard. Anko opened the door and shut it behind her before standing before her leader.

"L-lady Hokage I have something I must tell you…"

"What is it, Anko? Are you alright?"

"My lady. I'm..."

A giant thud was heard from the office as Tsunade fainted from shock.

_The next day at the aforementioned training ground at 10 AM._

"Ok, we will be testing you each to see what you are best at so that we will know what types of missions to send you two on." Tsunade, who was accompanied by several ANBU and Jiraiya, said, "The way we are doing this is a battle test. You will each face off against several of my ANBU and, if you beat the ANBU, you will face down either Jiraiya or me."

Itachi stepped forward.

"Very well, I will fight first."

"Cat, Dog, Tiger, Bear, you will be his opponents. Everyone else, move to the edge of the training ground to give them room." Tsunade ordered.

The ANBU quickly surrounded Itachi. Bear in front, Cat to his left, Tiger behind him, and Dog to his right.

Bear charged forward, intent on seeing what the famed Hi no Arashi could do. Bear launched a punch, only for Arashi to move just enough to dodge his attack and retaliate with a kick. Bear dodged the kick, only for Cat to attack Arashi with a flying roundhouse. Arashi ducked, grabbing Cat's leg and tossed her at Tiger, who had taken the chance to attack from behind.

Cat had forced Tiger to jump over his comrade, slamming down towards Arashi. Arashi saw this and easily moved, which happened to leave Bear behind him.

_'So they want to play, huh. Time to take this up notch...'_ Arashi thought to himself, turning around quickly, and in a blur even to Tsunade's eyes, Arashi's fist slammed into Bear's torso. In the next few seconds, Arashi had torn through the ANBU. He was moving at about Might Gai's speed.

"Is that all you have? I was just getting warmed up..."

"Well done. You live up to your bingo book entry, but next you'll have to fight me. First to see what Sennin can do though. Rat, Hawk, Boar, Dog, your up." Tsunade said, stopping the fight, knowing that if it continued her ANBU may have gotten seriously hurt.

The ANBU assumed the same surrounding formation as their companions had against Arashi. Rat on the left, Hawk at front, Dog on the right, and Boar behind.

Hawk charged forward, obviously a Hyuuga by his stance, and tried to land a hit on Sennin, only for Sennin to mimic his companion and move just enough to dodge the attacks before retaliating with a powerful kick to Hawks chest that sent him flying. In the meantime, Boar had charged from behind, with Dog approaching from the right and Rat forming a hand seal. Dog went for a sweeping kick, only for Sennin to jump over it and use the opportunity to land a roundhouse on both Dog and Boar. By the time he had landed, Rat, who was now revealed to be a Nara, had captured him in his shadow.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu, success."

Sennin simply smirked before flaring his chakra and disappearing. He reappeared behind Rat, slamming his fist into the back of Rat's head.

"Enough!" Tsunade called, seeing that, once again, her ANBU stood no chance, "Ok, now I will fight Arashi. Prepare yourself kid, I'm a lot stronger than all those ANBU combined."

Itachi smiled, he loved a good challenge. He moved forward, not taking any stance at all and taking a deep breathe.

"Bring it on... Granny." he said, his humor evident in his voice.

Tsunade lunged forward, preparing to smash Arashi's face as Arashi moved quickly.

_'She's' fast.'_

As he appeared behind her, swinging his leg down, however, she substituted to above him. This became the substitute war, as Itachi did the same, with Tsunade following in pursuit.

Itachi and Tsunade continued to substitute and counter attack until Tsunade managed to land a hit on Itachi.

"Ha! Got you brat!" Tsunade said, only for the Itachi she hit to poof into a cloud of smoke.

Tsunade scanned the area for her opponent, only to find him and a clone finishing a set of hand seals.

"Katon: Dai Endan. Fuuton: Daitoppa" The two said in unison, turning the already large blast of fire into a raging wall of flames heading towards Tsunade.

Tsunade slammed her fist into the ground creating a wall of earth to block the wall of flame, only to have Itachi appear beside her. Itachi swung his fist, only for her to duck, just to have the real Itachi spring from under the ground, slamming his fist into her jaw and knocking her into the air. As Tsunade fell back, Itachi somersaulted into the air and landed some feet away from her.

"Had this been a real battle, I would have instead shoved something sharp and pointy into you and killed you." Itachi said, looking at her, "I believe you are up Sennin."

Tsunade, recognizing that Arashi could have killed her, moved to the side of the field before gesturing to Jiraiya to face Sennin.

"Heh, don't underestimate me kid, I'm much stronger than Tsu-Hime over there." Jiraiya said as he moved towards the center of the field to face down the self proclaimed Sennin.

"You would do well not to underestimate me either, Jiraiya. I am also much stronger than my comrade." Sennin replied.

Jiraiya charged forward, intent on seeing what the seemingly one armed man could do in taijutsu. Jiraiya launched a punch, only for Sennin to brush it aside and do a sweep kick that Jiraiya jumped over and used as a chance to roundhouse kick Sennin, who leaped backwards to dodge. Sennin charged in, a blur to movement of the people on the field, and began furiously attacking Jiraiya, using mostly flurries of kicks mixed in with occasional backhands or punches from his right arm. Jiraiya and Sennin disengaged.

"Heh, your pretty good kid. Doton: Yomi Numa." Jiraiya called flashing through hand seals.

Sennin quickly leaped, performing his own one-handed seals at a blinding pace as he did so.

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu. Raiton: Gian." Sennin called, the water from Jiraiya's jutsu forming a large dragon that charged Jiraiya combining with the powerful bolt of chakra lightning.

Jiraiya flew through another set of hand seals.

"Doton: Doryuu Heki." Jiraiya created a wall of earth to stop the dragon and try to ground the lighting, though some of the lighting still managed to get through, shocking Jiraiya.

Jiraiya smiled. "Quite an attack you got there." Before taking a stance and looking at his opponent, "But let's say we heat this up a bit?"

Jiraiya rushed forward, launching a punch towards Sennin's stomach. Sennin jumped up, slamming a kick into the back of Jiraiya's head, who then rolled forward to dodge it. Jiraiya ran toward a tree before turning around doing hand seals.

"Fuuton: Kaze no Hari." Jiraiya called.

Sennin smiled, as the wind condensed and shot four nearly invisible needles at him. The next instant there was a red flash, then another, and Jiraiya was on the ground. However, Jiraiya poofed into smoke.

"A clone? Hm, I wonder when..." Sennin said aloud taking a stance.

Jiraiya smiled, apparently switching himself with a clone after he received the shock from behind the earth wall was a good idea, as he hid under the ground, letting himself feel for the chakra signature, to see where his opponent was at.

Sennin stomped his foot.

"Doton: Konagona Ni Natta Chikyu." Sennin said, causing the ground to shatter into large boulders and chunks of earth, forcing Jiraiya out of hiding.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu." Jiraiya called, summoning a large toad.

"Gamahiro, oil!" Jiraiya called, forming hand seals, "Katon: Gamayu Endan!"

The large toad spat out a stream of oil that Jiraiya lit with his fire jutsu, creating a massive stream of fire raging towards Sennin.

Sennin flew through more one-handed seals upon seeing Jiraiya's jutsu, "Kuchiyose no jutsu: Inferuno Daihyo: Sanka!" (Summoning technique: Inferno Squad: Division three)

There was a poof of smoke that covered the area around Sennin before the area was engulfed in flames. The surrounding ninja watched in anticipation as the smoke and dust cleared, revealing Sennin standing unharmed and surrounded by a group of ten foxes of varying size, coat color, and tail number.

"Attack the white haired man." Sennin commanded the group of foxes.

Jiraiya was stunned to see not only one fox summon but ten. His first thought skipped to the Kyuubi, but he knew that Naruto was dead and the Akatsuki had the Kyuubi. In this moment of distraction, two of the foxes rushed forward to dig their claws into the man's legs. A hasty substitution saved him, but the other 8 seemed to have followed him.

_'Man these things are fast... I'm going to have to go a tad bit harder yet on this guy!'_

Jiraiya put his hands together as though he was praying as he gathered his chakra.

"Katon: Karyuudan. Doton: Doryuudan." Jiraiya called, two dragons, one of earth and one of fire, forming and spitting out a barrage of orbs of their respective elements at the foxes.

Jiraiya was shocked to see that the foxes simply absorbed the fire into themselves while dodging the earthen blasts.

"Katon: Karyuudan." One of the foxes that had absorbed his fire blasts called, spitting out a fire dragon several times the size of Jiraiya's and flinging his own jutsu back at him.

"Suiton: Suijin Heki." Jiraiya formed a wall of water to block the massive blasts of flame and creating a mist as the wall evaporated upon contact with the fire jutsu.

The foxes had surrounded Jiraiya again, who this time, stomped his foot into the ground, creating a wall of Earth around him in a complete 360 degree range. Jiraiya let out a soft sigh before gathering chakra in preparation for what he was about to do.

The ten foxes surrounded the wall before firing off simultaneous powerful Katon jutsu, intent on melting the wall around him and leaving him in the center of a pool of lava.

As the smoke cleared, three glowing sets of eyes were made visible through the smoke.

"So you had no choice, did you Jiraiya." a slightly rough voice said.

"I'm testing someone who is also supposedly a Sennin. I didn't believe he could be until he summoned those foxes." Jiraiya replied as the smoke cleared away completely, revealing Jiraiya with a larger nose with a wart on it and two smaller toads sitting on his shoulders.

"You called us out for a test." The other toad questioned indignantly.

"Sorry, Ma, Pa, but I need to see just how strong he is." Jiraiya said contritely.

Sennin observed the man, who, aside from his more frog like appearance, had more red markings covering his cheeks and had yellow eyes.

"You wish to make this a battle of Senjutsu then? You are dismissed." Sennin said, speaking first to Jiraiya then to the foxes, who poofed away upon hearing his command.

Sennin shocked many of the people present by shrugging off the left side of his shirt, revealing his medical tape covered left arm. Sennin put his hands together into the same prayer like position as Jiraiya had earlier. There was a sudden marked difference in Sennin's chakra as it became much more powerful and his few visible features became more animal like.

"Senpou: Goenmon." Jiraiya said as the frog on his left spat out fire, he spat out oil, and the frog on his right spat out a huge gust of wind, resulting in a massive wave of boiling oil that was laced with fire.

"Doton: Doryuu Heki." Sennin said, spiting out a line of mud that shot upwards to form a massive wall that split the flow of boiling oil.

Sennin leapt on top of the stone wall he had formed and started doing two sets of one handed seals.

"Fuuton: Atsugai. Katon: Zukokku." Sennin thrust his hands at Jiraiya, one hand shooting off a powerful ball of compressed air and the other a ball of compressed, white hot flames.

The attacks collided just before hitting Jiraiya, creating an explosion that shook the training field. Jiraiya leapt from the tree line, engaging Sennin in a taijutsu battle.

"ENOUGH!" Tsunade yelled, ending the fight, "It is clear Sennin is as powerful as Jiraiya, if not more powerful. The tests are concluded. Report to my office and we will discus your roles in the war."

Sennin and Arashi looked toward each other and nodded, knowing deep down, they hadn't been in a serious fight since their training finished due to their being significantly more powerful than most of their opponents.

"Lady Hokage, is it fine for me and my comrade, Sennin, to catch a bite to eat first? I believe negations go better on a full stomach." Itachi smiled polity when he asked.

"Very well. We will break for lunch and meet at my office at 1:00 PM where I will officially make you a team and formally introduce you to your teammate, since I don't think an introduction would be appropriate at the moment." Tsunade replied.

_Scene Change_

"Come on, Arashi. I know the perfect place to go!" Sennin, his shirt once again covering his wrapped arm, said enthusiastically.

"You just want to indulge your nigh unholy ramen lust." Arashi said.

"… So?"

"Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen. What would you like?" Ayame said, not even looking away from her cooking.

"See, I told you she has freaky ninja skills. I'll have five bowls of miso, two bowls of pork, seven bowls of shrimp, and three bowls of beef." Sennin said, sitting himself in a stool.

"Two bowls of beef." Arashi said, opting not to comment on the waitress's assumed ninja skills.

Ayame, somewhat shocked that anyone other than the officially deceased Naruto or an Akimichi would order so much, glanced at the two men entering the shop.

"O-okay." Ayame managed to stutter at the two men.

_'How odd. One of them seems to act like a child and the other is a mystery. And the childish one ordered as much ramen as Naruto would, but it couldn't be Naruto, he's dead.'_

Such a big order took time to cook, so Ayame brought out four bowels of beef for now, two for each of the customers as she began to work furiously at the huge amount for the childish man.

"So Sennin... have any ideas who our 'teammate' is going to be? I half suspect that it's a spy to make sure we won't betray them." Arashi said, eating his Ramen slowly.

"Eh could be..." Sennin answered who gulped down the second bowl of ramen, and waited for more to be brought out. And just as Sennin had called her to be the one with Ninja skills, she appeared with four bowls again, one bowl of each flavor that he ordered.

_Scene Change_

Orochimaru stood at the entrance of his hideout. Ready to soon once again invade and this time destroy the leaf village.

"Kabuto. Send out messages to our allies. We begin the plan within the month."

_Scene Change again._

"Most likely, it will be a healer, but also someone who can keep an eye on us. I would suggest a Hyuuga, but I don't think there are any medics from their clan. From what I heard, Tsunade took on an apprentice, so she may be assigned to us because she is trusted." Sennin said between bowls.

"Hm you have a point. Though, personally, I would rather her than, one of the higher level shinobi be there with us, like the copy cat ninja, or Might Gai. They are the ones we should worry about if, at the end of this war, they decide to turn on us. You remember that time in Kumo that they tried that?" Arashi said, slurping his ramen slowly, starting to devour his second bowl slowly.

"Excuse me miss? May I have some tea please?"

"Y-yes." Ayame stuttered out, blushing at the fact that she had been staring at him, somewhat entranced by his voice.

"Thank you." Itachi said as Ayame set the cup down in front of him while he waited for Naruto to finish.

Naruto smiled as he noticed the stammer in Ayame's voice. "Yea Arashi, I remember." Sennin finished yet another bowl, and got up, finishing the last of his ramen. "Well hurry up and finish your tea, I'm going go on ahead and see who our team member is." Throwing Arashi a quick glance to inform him that Ayame was staring at him again.

* * *

Sui: So, you like. If so, or even if you don't really like, the review button is just a bit below this note and it isn't too hard to click said button and leave a review. Now on to reveiw answers.

Baddazz-Writer: You got what you wanted with Kakashi and Anko before you even reviewed.

dbtiger63: Glad you like the deal with the foxes. I just recently got down the chain of command and how everything is divided up setteled, for the most part, and there will be an explination about how that works in here soon.

Sui:OK, now to do something that isn't editing chapters so as to prevent plot problems and errors.


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